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Iraq charges 100 over prison torture

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Interior Ministry has charged nearly 100 employees, including a police general and other high-ranking officers, with involvement in torturing detainees at a prison in Baghdad known as Site 4.

Police and other forces of Iraq's Shi'ite-led Interior Ministry have long been accused by Sunni Arabs of operating torture centers and dungeons holding Sunni detainees.

The charges, announced by Interior Minister Jawad al Bolani to reporters late on Monday, are believed to be the first of their kind against Interior Ministry employees and come amid mounting U.S. pressure on Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to rein in Shi'ite militias in the police.

Known as Site 4, the eastern Baghdad prison run by the Interior Ministry was found to hold 1,431 detainees, including 37 juveniles, after a joint Iraqi-U.S. inspection in May.