U.S. soldier chronicles abuse, hard times in Iraq

Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:23 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops was widespread and not limited to the high-profile cases at Abu Ghraib prison, according to a former soldier who participated in an interrogation that she said "crossed a line."

Kayla Williams, 28, a former sergeant with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq and the author of a new book, said soldiers interrogating a naked Iraqi asked her to humiliate him. She also saw fellow soldiers throwing lit cigarettes at him and hitting him in the face.

"It's one thing to make fun of someone and attempt to humiliate him. With words. That's one thing. But flicking lit cigarettes at somebody -- like burning him -- that's illegal," Williams writes in "Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army," which hits U.S. bookstores September 5.