WASHINGTON, Dec 12: Thirteen prisoners suffered abuse serious enough to require medical treatment while at a detention centre in Baghdad operated by interior ministry special commandos, The Washington Post said on Monday.

In a dispatch from Baghdad, the report cited US and Iraqi officials as saying ‘an Iraqi official with firsthand knowledge of the search said that at least 12 of the 13 prisoners had been subjected to severe torture, including sessions of electric shock and episodes that left them with broken bones’.

“Two of them showed me their nails, and they were gone,” the report quoted the official, whom it said was not named ‘because of security concerns’.

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said on Sunday that any findings at the prison would be ‘subject to an investigation’, but he declined to comment on the allegations, the Post reported.

The site, which was searched on Thursday, is the second interior ministry detention center where cases of prisoner abuse have been confirmed by US and Iraqi officials, the report added. —AFP