[JURIST] At least 600 US troops have been linked to cases of abuse [press release], torture or killing of as many as 460 detainees at various detention facilities around the world, three human rights groups reported Wednesday. According to a report [text] from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch [advocacy websites], 330 cases of abuse at facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives] were documented, but only about half of those were completely investigated, and a third were never investigated or were unresolved. The groups argued that the report shows that widely reported abuses at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive] were not isolated incidents.

A Defense Department spokesman would not comment on the report, but said that 12 major reviews were conducted of detention operations, and none had found cases of sanctioned or ordered abuse. Researchers for the human rights groups compiled information from government and military documents, interviews with witnesses and other reports about the incidents. Knight Ridder has more.