23 May 2004	Sunday	03 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KABUL, May 22: The US military has appointed a one-star general to probe prison conditions in Afghanistan following allegations of abuse as Pentagon officials revealed two new deaths in custody in US-run Afghan detention centres.

Brig Gen Charles H. Jacoby will lead the review and report within a month to the top US military official in Afghanistan, Lt Gen David Barno.

Jacoby will visit all 20-odd detention sites in the "various rough parts of Afghanistan," US military spokesman Lt Col Tucker Mansager told a press conference in Kabul on Saturday.

The US has not revealed the location or exact number of its detention sites which are supposed to serve as temporary jails until the prisoners can be transported to the main detention centre at Bagram Air Base, some 50 kilometres north of Kabul.

The review has been prompted by two allegations of abuse from Afghans held in American detention centres, who spoke out in the wake of the publication of graphic photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

One of the complaints came from a former Afghan police colonel who said he was assaulted, sexually taunted and deprived of sleep last year.

Some 350 prisoners are held in US custody in Afghanistan.

Jacoby is expected to report back on their conditions before a report into the deaths of two Afghans in custody in Bagram in December 2002 is finalised.

Mansager said this was because the US military would not wait for the findings of the US army's criminal division's report "to take proper action."

Another man died in custody in the northeastern city of Asadabad in June 2003 and the case is being investigated by the US.

On Friday Pentagon officials revealed the US army had investigated a total of five deaths in Afghanistan, including one in which a soldier shot and killed an Afghan who allegedly lunged for his weapon.-AFP