U.S. vows to pursue prison abusers in Afghanistan

KABUL, May 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Afghanistan will pursue anyone accused of abusing prisoners, it said on Monday after allegations of beating and sexual assault at its secretive network of detention centres across the country.

The U.S. military's criminal investigation division has yet to complete an inquiry into the deaths of two Afghans in U.S. custody in December, 2002, causing frustration and anger among relatives and friends of the two young men who died.

Keen to avoid the kind of backlash in Afghanistan that its abuse of prisoners in Iraq has triggered, the Americans have launched two investigations in the last week after alleged abuses similar to those suffered by inmates near Baghdad came to light.

"There is no lack of will to pursue the perpetrators of any kind of alleged abuse, none at all," said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tucker Mansager, when asked why the families of two men who died in custody were still awaiting an explanation.

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