DENVER – Four U.S. soldiers will be reprimanded for forcing two Iraqi detainees to jump off a bridge into the Tigris River (search) earlier this year, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
There have been questions about whether one of the Iraqis died, but Fort Carson (search) spokesman Lt. Col. Thomas Budzyna said no one was killed.
The soldiers, based at Fort Carson, were part of a 3rd Brigade Combat Team (search) led by Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman, a star quarterback at West Point in the mid 1980s, Budzyna said.
Budzyna said he had no other information, and Sassaman did not return a call to his office.
Budzyna also said that members of another Fort Carson unit, the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, are being questioned about the deaths of two Iraqi prisoners: Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, 57, who was captured by the regiment in October, and Abdul Jaleel, 46.
The military has said Mowhoush died during interrogation Nov. 26 from asphyxiation due to smothering and chest compression. The CIA said one of its agents may have been involved and referred the case to the Justice Department.
Jaleel died Jan. 9 at a post near Al Asad, Iraq, of blunt force injuries and asphyxia, the Army said last week. The facility was the base camp of the 3rd Armored Cavalry.
There have been conflicting accounts on whether anyone died in the Jan. 4 bridge incident near Samarra, The Washington Post reported last month. Some soldiers at the scene said both men swam to safety, but one of the Iraqis told a U.S. officer his countryman died. A body washed up 10 days later.
Sassaman has been reprimanded for helping others mislead Army investigators about the incident, the Post reported, citing unidentified officers familiar with the situation.
Sassaman told The Associated Press in December that Samarra has been a "thorn in our side," then vowed to crack down on insurgents.
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