The picture in question

WASHINGTON, April 2 (IslamOnline.net) – U.S. Muslims called for a Pentagon probe of a photograph circulating on the Internet that showing an American soldier apparently mocking an Iraqi child.

In the photo, an American soldier is standing next to two Iraqi children who are giving the thumbs-up sign.

One child holds a hand-lettered sign in English that reads: "Lcpl Boudreaux killed my Dad, th(en) he knocked up my sister!". ("Knocked up" is American slang for making someone pregnant out of wedlock).

"If the United States Army is seeking to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, this is the wrong way to accomplish that goal," Muslim Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Executive Director Nihad Awad said Friday, April 2.

"Defense Department officials must take action to let military personnel know that such offensive behavior harms America's image and will not be tolerated," Awad said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in February ordered investigations into reported sexual assaults in the ranks of his troops in Iraq and Kuwait.

Rumsfeld cited concerns that some female soldiers have reported sexual misconduct but have been left in their units to serve with those accused of assaulting them.

Rape Letter

Awad said CAIR has also received an anonymous letter from a soldier who recently returned from Iraq that claims a commanding officer engaged in inappropriate conduct with prepubescent Iraqi girls.

The letter states that the officer, who was named by the writer, referred to the girls as "pre-rag heads" and coerced local Iraqi leaders to provide them in exchange for protection by American soldiers.

Awad said the officer's military unit was also named in the letter.

"The thought of all this makes me sick to my stomach. I am afraid to bring this to anyone in the Army, because I am doubtful that they would believe a soldier over the Battalion Commander," read the letter.

The CAIR executive director said that these reports point to "a disturbing pattern of behavior that needs to be addressed by our military".

Iraqi ordinary inhabitants lament that  occupation forces sometimes are accused of raping girls themselves along with trigger-happy others.

Many civilians have charged that the U.S. occupation forces helped undermine morality in the country by spreading vicious acts, including sex trade and drug dealing since they rolled into Baghdad on April 9.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Wednesday, July 16, that the failure of Iraqi and U.S. occupation authorities to provide public security in Iraq's capital lies at the root of a widespread fear of rape and abduction among women and their families.

The "Climate of Fear: Sexual Violence and Abduction of Women and Girls in Baghdad" report said that the failure of Iraqi and U.S.-led occupation authorities to provide public security in Iraq's capital lies at the root of a widespread fear of rape and abduction among women and their families.

The report also found that U.S. military police were not filling the gap when Iraqi police were unwilling or unable to conduct serious investigations of sexual violence and abduction.

On May 30, a British soldier was questioned over sickening "torture" photos of Iraqi prisoners, including an Iraqi PoW dangling from a fork-lift truck, and others depict soldiers committing sex acts near captured Iraqis.

The abuses led to growing sentiments against U.S. and British forces among ordinary Iraqis, one year after the occupation of their oil-rich country.