U.S. transfers last prison under its control to Iraq

BAGHDAD -- The United States has handed over the last detention facility under its control to Iraqi authorities.

The move is a milestone in Iraq's push for complete sovereignty seven years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

Thursday's transfer of Camp Cropper -- renamed Karkh Prison -- also marks the end of a troubling chapter in a U.S. presence in the country that was blighted by the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Maj. Gen. Jerry Cannon, the head of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, says 1,500 detainees are in the prison. He says the United States is holding on to another 200 detainees, including eight former regime members.

They will be held separately in an area of the former base called Compound 5.