Iraq

Civilian-soldier casualties rise as death toll hits 800

The official death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq reached 800 on Thursday during a month that ranks as the deadliest for National Guard and reserve troops since the war began.

With four days of the month remaining, 22 "weekend warriors" have already perished in May. They represented nearly one in three of the 69 deaths in May. In April, part-time troops accounted for fewer than one in five of the fallen.

The growing toll of part-time troops was predicted by military officials, stemming from an influx of thousands of reservists as part of a rotation of U.S. forces over the past few months. With the replacement operation nearly done, the force of 138,000 consists of nearly 40 percent civilian-soldiers.

The overall number of Operation Iraqi Freedom fatalities for May is about half the deaths of April, by far the war's bloodiest month, with 134 dead. Even so, May now stands as the third-worst for American combat deaths.

WASHINGTON - Some Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib said they were abused by troops from Poland and other coalition countries, according to copies of statements to Army investigators obtained Thursday by the Associated Press.

The witness statements also include new and more detailed allegations of abuse by military intelligence soldiers, including a civilian interpreter's accusation that an Army interrogator forced a prisoner to walk naked through a cellblock.

CONTRACTOR UNDER STUDY: The U.S. government has launched a review of one of the private contractors involved in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to determine whether to ban the company from future federal business, company and government officials said Thursday.

The General Services Administration asked CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., for information on its contract to provide civilian interrogators to the prison, company officials said Thursday. At least one CACI employee has been named in a military report as having contributed to the abuse at the prison.

Company officials pledged to cooperate. Neither the company nor any employee has been criminally charged in connection with the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad.

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