Torture blamed for detainee deaths : AT least eight detainees of the roughly 100 who have died in US military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were tortured to death, human rights lawyers said in a report released today. "These are detainees who were beaten, suffocated or otherwise died in circumstances that meet the definition of torture that is in the federal law that bans the practice," said Hina Shamsi, a lawyer for New York-based Human Rights First and author of the report.