A US military document obtained by a British newspaper says Australia's SAS played a key role in the potentially illegal detention of prisoners of war at a secret Iraqi prison.
The Guardian says an SAS team manning a roadblock arrested and detained a group of 64 men during a sweep for ''high-value'' members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
The paper says the men were listed as being detained by US personnel because a single American soldier was attached to the SAS unit manning the roadblock.
It says one of the men later died in an RAF helicopter, allegedly beat 3_news.4_web_news.air
en to death by airmen while en route to a secret location.
However, the Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Defence Department had advised him the allegations were ''baseless''.