Iraqi official admits torture

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Iraqi Interior Ministry Official Admits Abuses

12/11/2007

By Naseer Al-Alei

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat - An Iraqi Interior Ministry official has admitted to Asharq Al-Awsat that investigators used violence to extract confessions from suspects and that 75 per cent of insurgents' leaders, including top al-Qaeda figures, were dead.

Iraq's Interior Ministry Spokesman General Abdel-Karim Khalaf told the Asharq al-Awsat that some investigators had used violence to force suspects to confess but they did this 'without the knowledge' of people in higher authority.

'The use of violence is an old technique that we have no need for as we have enough ways other than extracting confessions by force,' Khalaf said.