Al-Qaida suspects, tortured in Yemen. The prisoners, also interogated by U.S forces

At least 18 clandestine prisons operate in Yemen, places where people suspected of having ties with al-Qaida are being tortured, some of them being also interrogated by U.S. forces, an Associated Press investigation has found.

According to Associated Press, hundreds of men have disappeared into this secret network of prisons run by authorities in Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.

The lockups are used for extreme torture, such as putting prisoners on a spit roast like structure while in a circle of fire.

Senior American defense officials acknowledged that U.S. forces have been involved in interrogations of the prisoners, but denied being aware of any violation of human rights.

Interrogating prisoners that have been abused is considered complicity in torture, according to international law.

AP spoke to former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and military officials and established that at least 18 such clandestine prisons exist in southern Yemen.

The secret prisons were said to be inside military bases, ports, an airport, private villas and even a nightclub.

U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that American forces participate in interrogations, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from their Emirate allies.

Senior military officials from the U.S. had heard of the allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, but established that there had not been any abuse when U.S. forces were present.

”We always adhere to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct. We would not turn a blind eye, because we are obligated to report any violations of human rights,” chief Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White told AP.

The allegations were also denied by the UAE’s government.

”There are no secret detention centers and no torture of prisoners is done during interrogations,” a spokesperson said.

Nearly 2,000 men have disappeared

According to their families, nearly 2,000 men have disappeared into the clandestine prisons, generating protests among families seeking information about missing sons, brothers and fathers.

There are also many lawyers saying that those men are in the secret lockups.

According to those testimonies, American interrogators were not involved in the actual abuses.

But according to international law, obtaining intelligence that may have been extracted by torture inflicted by another party would violate the International Convention Against Torture and could qualify as war crimes.

”The UAE was one of the countries involved in the CIA’s torture and rendition program. These reports are hauntingly familiar and potentially devastating in their legal and policy implications,” said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at NYU, who served as special counsel to the Defense Department until last year.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led and U.S.-backed coalition meant to help Yemen’s government fight Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who overran the north of the country. In return, the coalition is helping the U.S. target al-Qaida’s local branch and Islamic State militants.

Former inmates told AP that they were crammed into shipping containers smeared with feces and blindfolded for weeks on end, at a secret prison inside the local Riyan airport.

Some of them were beaten, tortured with flames and sexually assaulted.

A member of a Yemeni security force told AP that American forces were at times only yards away.

”We could hear the screams. The entire place is gripped by fear. Almost everyone is sick, the rest are near death. Anyone who complains heads directly to the torture chamber,” a detainee held for six months at Riyan airport told AP.

He said he was flogged with wires and at one time, when he was inside a metal shipping container, the guards lit a fire underneath to fill it with smoke.