Baghdad, Oct 06: The US military said today it shut down a makeshift prison camp at Baghdad airport that had drawn criticism for the conditions in which hundreds of Iraqis were held in tents in the scorching Iraqi summer heat. "It has been closed," said US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel George Krivo, adding that the prisoners already had been moved out and that troops were busy dismantling the facility.
The camp, which housed common criminals, former ranking members of the ousted Iraqi regime and others accused of attacking US troops, was sharply criticised by human rights groups after former detainees said they were held in inhuman conditions.
Krivo said the prisoners were moved to "superior facilities" that were not available when the camp was set up in April. This, he said, was in line with US policy to provide detainees with "the best possible facilities."
Amnesty International said in June that the conditions in which the prisoners were held at the camp "may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, banned by international law".
The International Committee of the Red Cross, whose representatives had visited the prisoners at the camp, said it would continue monitoring detention conditions. "We will closely follow the issue and the people transferred from this prison camp," said Nada Doumani, an ICRC spokeswoman in Baghdad.
Human rights groups say camp cropper was one of the biggest detention facilities in US-occupied Iraq, alongside Abu Gharib Prison near Baghdad. Bureau Report