Washington: Iraqi detainees in US custody will be moved from Abu Ghraib prison to new facilities under construction, the top US general confirmed on Thursday.
General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it will be up to the Iraqi government to decide whether to close the notorious prison.
"We do have plans and are in the process of building other facilities to move detainees who are under US control out of Abu Ghraib," Pace said after briefing lawmakers.
"That facility will then be owned and operated by the Iraqi government, and that government will decide when that facility closes, if it does," he said.
US military spokesmen in Baghdad said they expect to accomplish the transfer of more than 4,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib to a new prison at Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad international airport within two or three months.
A military spokesman said Abu Ghraib would be turned over to Iraqi authorities but they are not expected to use it as a prison or detention facility.
The prison had made headlines for the first time in 2003 when pictures of American soldiers torturing Iraqis came out in the open.
Just a fortnight ago, further images of torture within the prison walls were broadcast by the Australian media.
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