Graphic photographs showing the apparent abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war by their US guards in an Iraqi prison were aired on prime-time US television last night.

The 60 Minutes programme on the CBS network obtained copies of photos allegedly taken in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail late last year, showing Iraqi prisoners naked, being attacked by dogs and forced to sexually abuse one another.

Other photos showed Iraqis who were bruised and beaten being stacked in a human pyramid, with bags over their heads, slogans written on their skin and wires attached to their hands and genitals.

One picture shows a prisoner who is apparently dead. Many of the pictures also featured their American guards hitting or sitting on the prisoners, smiling and giving the thumbs up.

Six soldiers are facing criminal charges of maltreatment and assault before a court martial in relation to the photos, which last night were seen publicly for the first time.

A further seven, all officers in charge of running the prison west of Baghdad, have been recommended for disciplinary action after a military inquiry, it has emerged.

The officer formerly in charge of running the Iraqi prisons system, General Janice Karpinski, has been suspended since January.

60 Minutes identified one of the soldiers facing a court martial as army reservist Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick.

In an interview with the show, Mr Frederick claimed that only five soldiers and two non-commissioned officers - mostly reservists, who had never been trained in the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war - had been expected to guard more than 900 detainees in Abu Ghraib.

"We had no support, no training whatsoever," said Mr Frederick. "I kept asking my chain of command for certain things like rules and regulations, and it just wasn't happening."

Instead, a string of interrogators visited the jail on behalf of the army, the CIA and the FBI, and encouraged the guards to use beatings to soften the prisoners up before they were questioned, said Mr Frederick. He described how he was allowed to sit in on the interrogations as a reward.

"We had to use force sometimes to get the inmates to co-operate, just like our rules of engagement said," he told the interviewer, Dan Rather.

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