The Pentagon has confirmed that some military commanders in Iraq may have been made aware of possible cases of prisoner abuse throughout the country before mistreatment at the Abu Ghraib prison was uncovered.
A Pentagon spokesman Wednesday said he did not know which military commanders were given a confidential report citing alleged mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by a joint CIA-military team.
The Washington Post newspaper says the report was given to several generals and the top U.S. intelligence officer in Iraq in December 2003, about one month before a different report uncovered abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
The Post says the confidential report alleges the joint CIA-military team known as the TF-121 was physically abusing detainees and using a secret interrogation facility to hide its activities.
The Pentagon said the allegations were taken "very seriously."
Some information for this story provided by AP and AFP.