Two U.S. soldiers charged for abusing Afghans

KABUL (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been charged with the abuse of Afghan detainees, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

Any suspicion of abuse by U.S. soldiers is likely to further erode public support for international troops, now fighting a war in Afghanistan that has entered its eighth year.

"Captain Roger T. Hill and 1st Sergeant Tommy L. Scott, both of 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, have been formally charged with detainee mistreatment and dereliction of the duty to report detainee mistreatment," the U.S. military said in a statement.

The soldiers have been charged in an Article 32 investigation, the military equivalent of a civilian grand jury hearing, for an incident that occurred in the east of the country this year, the U.S. military said.

Eighteen witnesses testified during the hearing which took place Monday at a U.S. military base in eastern Khost province, it said.

In 2005, two U.S. soldiers were charged with abusing Afghan detainees at a base in southern Uruzgan province and some Afghans have claimed they were abused while detained at Bagram, the U.S. army's main base in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has around 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, either as part of a NATO-led force or in a separate U.S.-led coalition force.

(Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)