US military authorities have opened an investigation into the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees by two American soldiers, officials said Monday.
The investigation will determine whether the two soldiers, a captain and a sergeant from an infantry regiment, should be court-martialled, the military said in a statement.
The investigation followed accusations from within the soldiers' unit, the statement added, without giving further details on the alleged abuse.
US troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have been implicated in a number of abuse scandals in which troops have been accused of mistreating detainees, notably in the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
According to human rights groups, former prisoners from the US military jail in Bagram, north of Kabul, have complained of being beaten, tortured or subject to other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Nearly 70,000 international soldiers, many of them American, are deployed in Afghanistan tackling a growing Taliban-led insurgency.
