Speaking last night at a press conference in Qatar, Lieutenant General John Abizaid, the US Army's highest-ranking Arab-American, said the images were "disgusting" and he condemned the Arabic network for showing them, dressing down an Al Jazeera reporter as he asked a question.
The general asked other networks not to broadcast the pictures of the soldiers, who were shown bruised and injured as they were interviewed live on Iraqi television.
He said he did not think the pictures of captured American soldiers would not weaken the resolve of the US.
"I don't think that these pictures will damage either the psychology of our soldiers, the morale of our soldiers or the steadfastness of our government or the resolve of our people.
"This is a key test of support for the war," Lieutenant General Abizaid said.
So far, US and British TV stations have not shown the images, which have made the front pages of most national newspapers this morning. Both CNN and CBS aired single still images from the POW footage, but this footage provided no identifying features.
The film broadcast by Al Jazeera was most likely created by Iraqi TV and lays the Arab network open to the charges of propaganda.
The Iraqi footage shows five prisoners, including one woman. They were asked their names and where they were from and what they were doing in Iraq.
The troops were part of a US military supply convoy and not frontline troops, who were ambushed in the city of Nasiriyah.
"A young officer leading a convoy made a wrong turn and went somewhere he wasn't supposed to. It was an unfortunate incident. They were not combat trained," the general said.
Live on air, the POWs were asked to give their views on the war. One soldier said he "was told to come here" when he was asked why he was in Iraq. When asked if he came to shoot Iraqis, he said: "No, I come to shoot only if I am shot at. They don't bother me -- I don't bother them".
Another was asked how many officers were in his unit, he replied: "I don't know sir". When another was asked why he had come to Iraq, he said: "I follow orders."
The use of the pictures was condemned by Downing Street. A spokesman said it was urging broadcasters not to allow themselves to be exploited by the Iraqis.
"We will also be contacting Al Jazeera and other Arab media to make the same point. Coalition forces are making every effort to treat Iraqi prisoners of war with dignity and humanity and we would expect the Iraqis to do the same."
US networks have so far agreed to not showing the images, giving the US time to contact the families of those captured. However, they are unlikely to hold off indefinitely.
ABC News president David Westin told AP that the network was giving the Pentagon "a reasonable period of time" to contact the families of the POWs before airing the tape.
"I always appreciate hearing defence secretary Rumsfeld's viewpoint or that of any government official that we take into account. But we'd make our own judgment as to whether it was newsworthy," he said.
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