watch the prisoner abuse scandal widen

[mburbank]

"We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was a pattern and a system," said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Answering a question many lawmakers have posed, he said the abuse went beyond detainees held at the Abu Ghraib prison in the Baghdad area.

the ICRC said prisoners at Abu Ghraib were held naked in empty cells and beaten by soldiers. Three former military policemen at the prison told Reuters Thursday that abuse was commonplace.

The humanitarian group also said coalition forces fired on unarmed prisoners from watchtowers and killed some of them, as well as committing "serious violations" of the Geneva Conventions governing treatment of war prisoners.

-AP wire