Iraq orphanage boss to face court

BAGHDAD - The manager of a Baghdad orphanage where U.S. forces found children naked and malnourished in June will face court, a government official said on Monday.

Hamid al-Zaidi, general inspector of the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry, said a government inquiry had found the manager, two childcare workers and the guard of the orphanage of Dar Al-Hanan -- Arabic for the Home of Tenderness -- guilty of negligence.

He said the two childcare workers were on the run.

"An arrest warrant was issued for them," he told Reuters.

Under Iraqi law, an investigative judge will review evidence and decide whether to send the case to a three-member court for trial.

U.S. and Iraqi forces were led to the orphanage by members of a neighbourhood council and found 24 abused boys. Many had been tied to their beds and were too weak to stand.

After the incident, the boy's section of the orphanage in central Baghdad was closed and the boys were moved to a nearby building where orphaned girls were housed.

In November, one boy died of cholera after falling ill at the orphanage. Four more children, boys and girls all under the age of 14, were also diagnosed with cholera and remain in hospital care.

The Health Ministry has blamed the cholera cases on a water tank on the orphanage's roof that had not been properly cleaned or maintained.