The American television network ABC broadcast two photos showing Spc. Charles Graner and Spc. Sabrina Harman posing over the body of a detainee who was allegedly beaten to death by CIA or civilian interrogators in the prison's showers. The detainee's name was Manadel al-Jamadi.

According to testimony from Spc. Jason Kenner, obtained by ABC, the man was brought to the prison by US Navy SEALs in good health. Kenner said he saw extensive bruising on the detainee's body when he was brought out of the showers, dead.

Kenner says the body was packed in ice during a "battle" between CIA and military interrogators over who should dispose of the body.

The justice department opened an investigation into this death and four others today following a referral from the CIA.

The photos were taken by Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, who in e-mails to his family has asked why the people responsible for the prisoner's death were not being prosecuted in the same manner that he is.

Frederick, Graner, and Harman are among six reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company who are facing charges in the abuse scandal.

A lawyer for Graner, Guy Womack, told ABC the photo of his client represents inappropriate "gallows humor." Womack questioned why US officials have not opened a criminal investigation into alleged murders at Abu Ghraib, while the investigation of his client has proceeded at a rapid pace.

Meanwhile, another disc with 24 photographs depicting "apparent abusive acts by US forces" has surfaced in the investigation of mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at a US-run prison near Baghdad, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Thirteen of the photographs appeared to be images already seen in the international media, but 11 have not been identified in previous investigations, according to a Pentagon letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

One US soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb at Tikrit hit their convoy while the other soldier was died when their unit was attacked by hand grenades early yesterday in central Baghdad, the US military.

The latest casualties take the US military death toll in Iraq to 790 since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003. This figure includes 576 troops killed in action.

The clash between Shia militiamen and US troops showed no sign to cease at Karbala as nine civilians were killed and 16 others overnight.

(ABC, REUTERS, AFP)