WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (MASNET & News Agencies) - The U.S. military is investigating 28 soldiers over the deaths in 2002 of two detainees in American custody in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army said.

Some could face charges of involuntary manslaughter, a spokeswoman said, giving details of the inquiry carried out as the U.S. military carries out court-martials over the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The bringing of charges marked the latest step by the American military against soldiers involved in the abuse of prisoners in both Iraq and Afghanistan, reports Reuters news agency.

It did not name the troops but said a detailed report had been passed to commanders listing potential offenses including involuntary manslaughter, assault consummated by battery, maiming, maltreatment, dereliction of duty and conspiracy, reports the news agency.

The 28 are named in an official report into the deaths of two detainees at the Bagram air base near Kabul on December 4 and December 10, 2002, who died after receiving blunt force injuries, according to the Army. Military medical examiners classified their deaths as homicides.

The nationalities of the dead were not given.

The base was used to hold and detain "war on terror" prisoners after the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in the wake of a U.S.-led invasion.

It has been used for interrogations even after most detainees were moved to the U.S. base at Guantanamo in Cuba.

The soldiers are from a military police reservist unit and an active military intelligence unit, the spokesman said.

Sgt. James Boland, an Army reservist in the 377th Military Police Company, was earlier charged with assault, maltreatment and dereliction of duty in the deaths, the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Georgia, said last month, reports Reuters.

A statement from the Army Criminal Investigation Division said: "These investigations identified 28 soldiers with possible culpability in these two cases, meaning they may have committed one or more offenses punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"However, many of the 28 soldiers may have lesser culpability."

Military commanders and lawyers "will consider the full range of appropriate administrative and disciplinary measures from taking no action to recommending trial by court-martial," added the statement.

The spokeswoman said there had been a "very thorough, a tough process" after the deaths.

She said that the injuries and much of the data in the cases was "very subtle."

"Beatings on the lower part of their legs was difficult to assign to this person or that person, on this precise date," the spokeswoman added.

The units involved in the investigation are the 377th MP unit, which is made up of reservists, and the 519th military intelligence unit.

Military police and intelligence are also at the center of the Abu Ghraib scandal, which came to light when photos of the sexual humiliation of prisoners were published.

U.S. authorities have charged seven soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company with involvement in prisoner abuse at the notorious jail outside Baghdad in late 2003. One has been convicted.

At least one inmate has died at Abu Ghraib. Twenty-seven military intelligence and police officers, as well as private contractors, have also been recommended for indictment.

The Afghan investigation focuses on cases of prisoner abuse that took place there more than three months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq and even longer before the Abu Ghraib scandal, reports Reuters.

The 519th Military Intelligence Battalion was posted in 2002 at Bagram. Some soldiers from the unit later were sent to Iraq and served at Abu Ghraib, where they were linked to abuse of prisoners there, reports the news agency.

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