US military interrogators assaulted Afghan detainees using techniques they learned during self-defence training, according to documents released by the Pentagon.

 

Interrogators punched and kicked detainees held at the Gardez prison camp in southeastern Afghanistan in 2003, the documents show.

A 2006 Army review of the case said the detainees were not abused but that the incident revealed "misconduct that warrants further action."

 

The documents, which were given to the American Civil Liberties Union, focus on the death of Afghan detainee Jamal Nasser, who died at the facility in 2003.

The review found that abuse did not cause Nasser's death and that he died of a stomach illness.

 

But the documents detail interrogation techniques used on eight detainees, who were made to kneel outside in wet clothing and were kicked and punched in the kidneys, nose and knees if they moved.

 

 

The records include interviews with some interrogators who acknowledged slapping the detainees - a technique they learned during military survival training at the army's SERE school.

 

SERE stands for Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape.

 

"These documents make it clear that the military was using unlawful interrogation techniques in Afghanistan," said Amrit Singh, a legal advisor at the ACLU.

 

"Rather than putting a stop to these systemic abuses, senior officials appear to have turned a blind eye to them."

 

SERE methods were also used on detainees by military interrogators in Iraq and at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Singh said.

 

The 2004 criminal inquiry of Nasser's death was among a series of inquiries into alleged abuse of prisoners in US jails in Afghanistan.

 

The Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.

 

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban government that it said provided a haven for the al-Qaeda leaders who planned the September 11 attacks on New York.