The image of a hooded Iraqi prisoner hugging his son, which won the 2003 World Press Photo

BAGHDAD, March 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Six U.S. military police officers in Iraq have been charged with maltreatment, assault and indecent acts against prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison west of Baghdad, a top U.S. army spokesman said Saturday, March 20.

“As a result of the criminal investigation, six military personnel have been charged with criminal offenses,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt as telling a press conference.

The charges “include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty, maltreatment, assault and indecent acts,” he said.

The crimes involve less than 20 prisoners and happened around November and December 2003.

“Even though it was a very small number, that's the kind of cancer you have to cut out completely,” he said.

Kimmitt, the U.S.-lead occupation’s deputy operations chief, said the six U.S. military police officers were among 17 military personnel who were suspended when the investigation was launched on January 14.

“The coalition takes all reports of detainee abuse seriously and all allegations of mistreatment are investigated,” he said.

“We are committed to treating all persons under coalition control with dignity, respect and humanity. Coalition personnel are expected to act appropriately, humanely and in a manner consistent with the Geneva Convention.”

They soldiers are due to face an Article 32 hearing - the military equivalent of a grand jury inquiry - which will decide whether the military should prosecute them.

In July 2003, four U.S. soldiers were charged with assaulting and battering Iraqi prisoners of war, in the first announcement of its kind since U.S. President George W. Bush declared the war to occupy Iraq over on May 1.

A spokesman for the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International said the organization submitted a 25-page report to the U.S.-led occupation administration in Iraq on “excessive use of force, shooting demonstrators, maltreating prisoners and civilians by American soldiers”.

Iraqi inmates held at various U.S.-run detention centers are subjected to prolonged hooding, sleep deprivation, restraint in painful positions -- sometimes combined with exposure to loud music and bright light, according to the document compiled by Amnesty monitors who have been working in Iraq since April 2003.