Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has told The Los Angeles Times that he was unaware of any abuse at the prison.Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A report released Tuesday by a human rights group details allegations of horrific torture and abuse at a secret prison in Iraq where detainees say they were routinely beaten, shocked and sodomized by their interrogators.
The report by Human Rights Watch was based on interviews conducted Monday with 42 prisoners who had been held at a secret facility in west Baghdad's old Muthanna airport since late 2009.
The men were among 300 detainees who were transferred in recent weeks to another detention center after the existence of the Muthanna prison was revealed, Human Rights Watch said.
Allegations of torture and abuse at Muthanna were first reported by The Los Angeles Times on April 19. Amnesty International has urged Iraqi officials to investigate the claims.
CNN could not immediately reach U.S. or Iraqi officials for comment on the Human Rights Watch report Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch said three Iraqi army officers have been arrested in the alleged abuse after the Times report surfaced.
Tuesday's report by Human Rights Watch said the Muthanna prison operated under the jurisdiction of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, citing unidentified sources.
"What happened at Muthanna is an example of the horrendous abuse Iraqi leaders say they want to leave behind," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. "Everyone responsible, from the top on down, needs to be held accountable."
Al-Maliki told the Times he was unaware of any abuse and ordered the prison shut down after the allegations were revealed to him by human rights officials earlier this month.
"Prime Minister al-Maliki's claim that he was unaware of abuses cannot exonerate the authorities from their responsibilities and their duty to ensure the safety of detainees," Amnesty International said in a statement calling for accountability in the wake of the Times report.
Detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch this week said that while at the secret facility, they were handcuffed, blindfolded and hung upside down using two bars, one placed behind their calves and the other against their shins. They said they were then kicked and beaten with heavy cables by their interrogators, who also are said to have placed plastic bags over detainees' heads to close off their air supply.
"They would suffocate me with a bag until I passed out and would wake me with an electric shock to my genitals," one unidentified detainee told Human Rights Watch. "Even after they forced me to confess that I killed 10 people, the torture never stopped."
Detainees said they were called terrorists and Baathists by their interrogators during such beatings, a reference to Saddam Hussein's former regime. Detainees said they were forced to sign fake confessions, with the promise the abuse would stop. However, many said it persisted, according to the report.
Detainees also described to Human Rights Watch multiple incidents of alleged sexual abuse. The detainees said interrogators and security officials sodomized them using broomsticks and pistol barrels or forced other prisoners to molest one another. Some of the men said they were forced to perform oral sex on prison officials.
Human Rights Watch said such torture was conducted for hours at a time every three or four days.
More than 430 men were held at Muthanna before they were transferred to other facilities.
The men were arrested by the Iraqi army between September 2009 and December 2009 in raids around the northern city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said.
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