WHEN Abd al-Rahman, a minor official at the agriculture ministry in Baghdad, was detained by coalition forces last June, he began a rapid descent into hell.

Rahman claims that in the three months that followed he was beaten frequently, given shocks with an electric cattle-prod and had one of his toenails prised off. Rations were often laced with pork ?? forbidden to Muslims ?? and scorpions were a menace around the tent in which he slept.

Like many of the thousands of Iraqis held by the Americans, Rahman, who was finally released after three months, still does not know why he was arrested. He suspects that a colleague with a grudge falsely denounced him as a member of Saddam??s Fedayeen militia.

??I am free and healthy now but I no longer have a job and many of my friends and relatives are still detained,?? he told representatives of Christian Peacemaker Teams, an American human rights group, who interviewed dozens of former detainees and their families during a seven-month investigation. Attempts to obtain compensation have come to nothing.

Stung by such testimony and supporting evidence from some US servicemen, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq, has ordered an inquiry into the ??reported incidents of detainee abuse at a coalition forces detention facility??.

Although American officials declined to give details of where the alleged abuses occurred, a spokesman for Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, described the reports as ??serious and credible??.

Sanchez??s announcement came just over a week after three soldiers ?? two men and a woman ?? were found guilty of kicking prisoners in the head, abdomen and groin in an incident at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq last May. They were discharged from the US army.

Another officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Allen West, a battalion commander in the 4th Infantry Division, was allowed to resign after he admitted firing a weapon near a detainee suspected of plotting attacks against US soldiers.

The coalition is believed to be holding about 12,800 detainees in Iraq. Some were captured during attacks on allied forces. Many others, like Rahman, appear to have been detained on suspicion of links with resistance groups or because it was thought they could shed light on the whereabouts of Saddam??s henchmen.

Some of the worst treatment of prisoners is said to have occurred at Camp Cropper, a makeshift prison camp at Baghdad international airport where hundreds of Iraqis were crowded in tents throughout the scorching summer. Although US authorities insisted conditions were in line with international law, the camp was closed in October.

Equally notorious is Abu Ghraib, one of the most feared jails of Saddam??s era, which has been taken over by American forces. Najim Abdulhussein, 52, a grocer who was arrested with his son, claimed he had been ordered to stand upright for 13 hours until he collapsed during his time at the jail. He also said interrogators had spat in his face and burnt his arm with a cigarette.

Such mistreatment may have been far more widespread, according to the account by Rahman, who was taken at gunpoint from his home in Baghdad early one morning.

His problems began when he was taken to a base in the city??s al-Shaab district where he claims he was kept alone in a room with his hands tied behind his back for two days. Despite the heat, he was allowed only two glasses of water.

??During these two days, some interrogators beat me frequently, shoved me around, stood on my back and prised off one of my toenails,?? he said.

Conditions were just as bad when he was transferred to the airport camp. When he complained of swollen arms after his hands were tied too tightly, he was taken to a large, muscular soldier who was introduced as a doctor.

??The ??doctor?? examined me by kicking me to make me roll over or turn around and boring his fist into my chest to check my consciousness,?? he claimed.

He was repeatedly asked for information about Saddam and other members of the regime. When he insisted he knew nothing, soldiers threatened to harm his family, he said.

Rahman??s release was as unexpected as his arrest. ??They drove me to the middle of Baghdad near the Al Rasheed hotel and dumped me out of the car, shouting ??Go! Go! Go!???? Too weak to walk, he had to be helped into a taxi by a traffic policeman. Nicola Solic Cris Bouroncle

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