Detainees say US forces mistreated them

Army vehicles blocked off all the roads and surrounded the four-building ITC compound, nearby the Turkish government liaison office, Isa Mohsen Kasap, a spokesman for the ITC told the Associated Press.

Sarkawt Kuba, head of security and intelligence for Sulaymaniya province, told the agency that similar raids took place in Kirkuk and in the largely Iraqi Turk town of Daquq. He said the Sulaymaniya police first heard of the raids after frightened residents reported it.

"We didn’t take part in the operation," he said. "The Americans went in by themselves."

"We were not treated in a humane manner during the detention," said two Turkish businessmen that were together with Turkish soldiers in the liaison office when American forces raided the building.

One businessman Deniz Turkkan said he was in the office for a visit to the Turkish soldiers and added that he had been detained by American soldiers despite his repeatedly saying that he was a civilian. He said the detainees were handcuffed and brought to a strange place in the neighboring city of Kirkuk.

A Turkmen security guard working for the Turkish liaison office, Nihat Raza, told the Anatolia news agency that they had not been given food in the first day of their detention and were left waiting for hours outside a refugee camp in Baghdad.

A Turkmen woman working as a cook in the office said American soldiers clubbed her with a rifle butt when she attempted to resist.

"The Americans say they came to liberate Iraq, instead they’ve violated our human rights," said Kasap. "Without asking permission or letting us know that they were coming, they came and took over all of our offices."

Col. William Mayberry commands the Kirkuk-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, which led the raids. Capt. Jill Whitesell, his spokeswoman, referred all questions to military headquarters in Baghdad.

Najmadin Vali, the ITC’s head of planning, who was detained for several hours during the raid, criticized the American troops’ behavior during the raid

"I heard a noise outside and went to see what was happening. An American soldier started screaming at me and threw a rock. They entered the compound and started breaking down doors," he said. "They just treated us like terrorists."