Two U.S. senators are asking Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to look into reports that U.S. military interrogators worked with United Arab Emirates forces accused of torturing detainees in Yemen.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jack Reed, D-R.I, said the reports were “deeply disturbing,” according to the Associated Press.
McCain chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Reed is the panel’s highest-ranking Democrat.
The Associated Press released an investigation Thursday that detailed a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates or Yemeni forces trained by the Gulf nation.
The prisons are located inside military bases, ports, an airport, private villas and a nightclub, according to the AP, and prisoners are tortured at the lockups.
U.S. defense officials confirmed that American forces participate in interrogations of detainees held in the secret prisons, provide questions for others to ask and receive transcripts of the interrogations.
Officials also said military leaders knew of allegations of torture taking place at the lockups and looked into them.
The Associated Press said military leaders were “satisfied” that no U.S. forces were present when abuse took place.
After the report was published, McCain and Reed sent a letter to Mattis asking him to review the allegations of abuse and what U.S. forces knew.
“We are confident that you find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do,” they said.
