They have the Sunnis and ****es bedding together, fights break out, Quelle
surprise!

Updated: 10:19 PM EST
U.S. Guards Kill Four Inmates in Iraq Prison Riot

BAGHDAD (Jan. 31) - U.S. troops in Iraq shot dead four detainees on Monday
during a riot at the main U.S. prison camp for guerrilla suspects, near the
Kuwaiti border.

Suspected foreign fighters are kept behind razor wire and under the watch of
armed military police at the American-run Camp Bucca detention center, 300
miles south of Baghdad.


U.S. officers said six prisoners were also wounded in the violence, which
affected hundreds of men at Camp Bucca on the day after Iraqis voted in their
first free election in decades.

There were no serious injuries among the Americans during 45 minutes of
rioting, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said. Troops shot the four dead with
rifles after failing to quell rock-throwing rioters with plastic pellets fired
from shotguns.

"We're not sure exactly what sparked it. There's no obvious connection with the
election. We're not sure if that had anything to do with it," Johnson, a
spokesman for the U.S. military detentions operation in Iraq, told Reuters.

It was not the first time U.S. soldiers have fired on Iraqi prisoners -- a riot
at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison in November 2003 left three detainees dead. And
officer have reported unrest in Camp Bucca's razor wire compounds in recent
months.

But the extent of the violence appeared to have taken troops -- recently
arrived military police reservists -- by surprise and may raise questions about
the expansion of the desert camp, which has taken over from Abu Ghraib as the
main U.S. prison in Iraq following last year's abuse scandal at the Baghdad
jail.

U.S. commanders have said they want Camp Bucca to serve as a model for good
conditions as an antidote to the bad publicity generated by photographs of
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Prisoners began throwing rocks and fashioning weapons after a routine search of
one of 10 compounds at the camp near the port of Umm Qasr, the military said in
a written statement.

Violence spread to three other compounds, which together house more than 2,900
of Camp Bucca's 5,300 inmates.

Some detainees have been held for more than a year, Johnson said, their cases
reviewed by U.S. and Iraqi officials every three to four months with a view to
possible release.

Those injured were hurt variously by U.S. troops or other detainees, the
military statement said. Three of the six wounded were taken to a military
hospital for further treatment.

"The violence erupted after a routine search for contraband in one of the
camp's 10 compounds," the statement said.

"The facility's commander immediately deployed all available guards to the camp
in an attempt to control the situation ...

"Guards attempted to calm the increasingly volatile situation using verbal
warnings and, when that failed, by use of non-lethal force. After about 45
minutes of escalating danger, lethal force was used to quell the violence."

Johnson declined to identify the casualties. The Iraqi government and Red Cross
would be notified, the military said.

Johnson said the troops on guard were from a recently arrived reserve unit, the
105th Military Police Battalion.

"The cause of the riot and use of lethal force is currently under investigation
by the chain of command and the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigations Division,
which is standard procedure whenever a detainee death occurs," the military
statement said.

U.S. officers quoted last week by The Los Angeles Times said that in previous
unrest at Camp Bucca, including sectarian fighting between Shi'ite and Sunni
Muslims late last year, prisoners had used tent poles as weapons, although most
tents now are being replaced by air-conditioned prefabricated huts.


01/31/05 19:38 ET