LONDON, May 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Creative even in torture techniques, U.S. soldiers interrogating Iraqi Prisoners of War (POWs) have resorted to heavy metal music and American children’s popular programs to break the will of the prisoners.

Uncooperative Iraq prisoners are being exposed for prolonged periods to tracks by rock group Metallica and music from children's TV programs Sesame Street and Barney in the hope of making them talk, the BBC News Online reported Tuesday, May 20.

"They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them," boasted Sergeant Mark Hadsell, of the U.S.'s Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops).

He admitted that the aim was to break a prisoner's resistance through sleep deprivation and playing music that was culturally offensive to them.

"These people haven't heard heavy metal," Hadsell told the Newsweek.

"In training, they forced me to listen to the Barney "I Love You" song for 45 minutes. I never want to go through that again," one U.S. operative told the magazine.

Rick Hoffman, vice president of the Psy Ops Veterans Association, told the BBC radio that "the use of this kind of audio-technique is rather new in interrogation.

"There have been other kinds of non-lethal, non-harmful techniques, such as sleep deprivation... which leave no long-lasting effects but do have the end result of breaking down the individual's will to resist questioning," he said.

However, human rights organisation, Amnesty International, charged that such tactics may constitute torture - and Anglo-American forces could be in breach of the Geneva Convention.

Amnesty International told BBC News Online that at least one Iraqi captive - a civilian, later released - had reported being kept awake for up to four days by loud music.

"This is an issue that seriously concerns us. If there is a prolonged period of sleep deprivation, it could well be considered torture," said an Amnesty International spokeswoman.

"It is a very difficult line to draw between what constitutes discomfort and what constitutes torture - that line will vary for individuals and it would depend on each particular case," she added.

"As of Wednesday we had interviewed 20 people," he said, referring to Iraq prisoners of war who said they had been tortured by Anglo-American troops in An-Nasiriyah and around Basra.

When asked, the researcher insisted that torture was the correct word to use for the handling of the prisoners.

After returning from Amnesty's first fact-finding mission in Iraq since 1993, Boumedouha stressed the mistreatment included "beatings with fists, with feet, also with weapons.