CAIRO, September 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – US troops routinely subjected Iraqi detainees to severe beatings and other cruel and inhumane treatment as a "way of sport" or just to "relieve stress", a leading US rights group has revealed.

"Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC [Persons Under Control] tent. In a way it was sport," one US sergeant told the Human Rights Watch.

"… One day [a sergeant] shows up and tells a PUC to grab a pole. He told him to bend over and broke the guy’s leg with a mini Louisville Slugger, a metal bat," he recalled.

In its "Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division" report, the HRW documents testimonies by three US army personnel -- two sergeants and a captain.

They said Iraqi detainees were regularly subjected to stress positions, sleep deprivation and extremes of hot and cold by US soldiers, in many cases merely to "relieve stress".