Soldier Kicked Prisoner who Later Died : "A military police officer testified Tuesday that she saw a fellow sergeant kick a chained detainee in the knees days before the prisoner died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Keri Patterson told the military court that Sgt. Christopher W. Greatorex and another officer took turns hitting the detainee, known as Habibullah, as he stood in an isolation cell with his hands chained to the ceiling at Bagram Airfield.

Greatorex, a reservist with the 377th Military Police Company in Ohio, is charged with abusing Habibullah and then lying about it. Habibullah died days later, in December 2002.

According to a 2004 military report, Habibullah died of a pulmonary embolism apparently caused by blood clots formed in his legs from beatings.

Patterson said she was working at the isolation unit when she watched Greatorex and Sgt. Darin Broady. She said Broady also gave Habibullah 'a kind of kung-fu kick' to the abdomen as the man shouted 'Allah' several times. A third officer was also present, she said, but she could not recall his name.

Patterson acknowledged that she should have reported the incident, but instead wrote in a log only that the prisoner had been reprimanded."

(Via a DefenseTech.)