US soldier pleads guilty to Abu Ghraib abuses

A US reservist who stomped on the fingers and toes of hooded Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison pleaded guilty to assault yesterday under a deal that could result in a reduced sentence from a military court.

Sgt Javal Davis is one of seven reservists from the Army's 372nd Military Police Company charged with abuses at Abu Ghraib, photos of which caused a worldwide uproar.

Two from that unit, including Pfc. Lynndie England, who was pictured holding a leash tethered to a naked prisoner, still face trial.

Several witnesses at another Abu Ghraib trial last month said that Davis stomped on a group of seven prisoners as they lay bound and hooded on the notorious prison's floor in November 2003.

Davis had argued that he and other guards roughed up prisoners at the behest of intelligence officials who wanted to extract information in the US "war on terror".

"Basically, when the intelligence personnel, when they bring them down there, anyone that comes in there with intelligence value, they want to interrogate them and they would ask you to loosen them up," Davis, 26, formerly of Roselle, New Jersey, told ABC News last year.

"Basically, just rough them up a little bit, get them scared. Don't hurt them or anything like that, which I didn't do. No one was injured from what I did."

Under a plea agreement that is expected to result in a sentence lower than the original eight and a half years he faced, Davis, admitted his guilt on three charges, including dereliction of duty, making a false official statement and battery.

The court will today choose a military jury which will decide the punishment, a base spokesman said.

The "following orders" defence failed at the only Abu Ghraib abuse trial to date, that against leading figure Charles Graner. He was found guilty last month of stacking up naked prisoners into a human pyramid after Davis stepped on their fingers, leashing a naked prisoner and other abuses.