The Los Angeles Times has revealed that U.S. military investigators have opened a criminal probe into allegations that U.S. troops * tortured and murdered an 18-year-old Afghan soldier, Jamal Naseer last year while in U.S. custody. The investigation is also examining the alleged torture of seven other Afghan soldiers — none of whom were linked to Al Qaeda or the Taliban. The US allegedly beat the detainees, immersed them in water, gave them electrical shocks, hung them upside down and tore off their toenails. This according to Afghan investigators and an internal memorandum prepared by a United Nations delegation that interviewed the surviving soldiers. Some of the Afghan soldiers were reportedly beaten to the point that they could no longer walk or sit. One witness described Naseer’s battered corpse as “green and black” with bruises. According to the LA Times the US Army had stymied previous attempts to investigate the murder and torture, but the Army reopened the probe in response to questions from the newspaper and the * Crimes of War Project. [Related links from the Crimes of War Project website: * “A Torture Killing by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan”* || * “Not Above the Law: U.S. Special Operations in the War on Terror”*]