A year on from the day United States President George W Bush triumphantly declared his task of liberating Iraq over, his promise to go on and "win the hearts and minds of Iraqis" seems full of cruel irony in view of the latest scandal over American and British soldiers' brutality against Iraqi prisoners.

On Thursday, American TV network CBS broadcast a series of photographs which not only confirmed some of the worst allegations of coalition troops' conduct in Iraq but exposed some of the dirtiest secrets of the US-led occupation.

In one picture, a hooded prisoner was seen standing on a small box with wires attached to his body. The man had apparently been told that he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box.

Other more graphic images, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, included those of naked Iraqi prisoners piled in a human pyramid and detainees ordered to stand in humiliating positions while soldiers posed for the camera with thumbs-up signs.