Hundreds tortured in Iraqi prisons, government says

Hundreds of people were tortured in Iraqi prisons last year, the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights reported in a statement released Sunday. Of the 306 cases of torture and abuse in Iraqi prisons reported by the ministry, 107 took place in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, the ministry said in a statement published in Baghdad's al-Sabbah newspaper Sunday. The New York-based pressure group Human Rights Watch has said that the torture or abuse of Iraqi prisoners is 'routine and commonplace.' The group said that detainees were routinely beaten with cables, hoses and metal rods; were suspended for long periods of time with their hands tied behind their back; and had shocks administered to their earlobes and genitals by security officers.