HELL ON EARTH; Naked, starving, tied to their beds in 120F heat..the orphans of Iraq. The soldiers who found them wept. Their 'carers' had been selling their food for profit.

Byline: By CHRIS HUGHES Security Correspondent

FOR the battle-hardened men of 82nd Airborne it was just another Baghdad patrol.

But during a random search they stumbled on one of the most shocking sights of the Iraq war so far. It left many American and Iraqi soldiers weeping - despite being used to the horrors of this brutal conflict.

Starving children, many barely alive, had been tied up and were slowly dying in a forgotten government-run orphanage. Some could hardly move and were lying outside, baking in 120F heat.

Inside lay more abandoned children, whose families are believed to have died in the war, tied and chained to walls. One sick boy was covered in thousands of flies and was so ill all he could move was his eyeballs.

Unbelievably, three adults were nearby, cooking food taken from the orphanage's well-stocked larder - a new low in the growing catalogue of depravity in Iraq.

It was not so the "carers" could survive - they had plenty of food. The evil trio is suspected of selling off the desperate kids' food to a local market for profit.

All three have been handed over to the Iraqi authorities and face lengthy prison sentences - although one is now on the run.

Iraqi and American doctors fought to keep the boys alive and many are recovering well a week after the grim discovery.

It was made when a US military advisory team and Iraqi soldiers happened to look over the wall of a compound.

Staff Sgt Mitchell Gibson of the 82nd Airborne Division said: "They saw multiple bodies lying on the floor. They thought they were all dead but one of the kids looked up and then back down again."

The soldiers went inside the building, a public orphanage for special needs children, and wept when they saw emaciated little bodies tied to beds. They gave the children first aid then called in emergency medical teams. Drips were applied to the boys who had been unfed for a month.

Staff Sgt Michael Beal said: "I saw children so skinny you could see every bone in their body. They had no energy to move, no expression on their face."

Lt Stephen Duperre added: "They were tied up, naked, and covered in their own waste and there were three people cooking themselves food." But more horrors were to follow.

The soldiers found the kitchen shelves packed with food and in the stockroom there were rows of brand new clothing still in its wrapping, presumably waiting to be sold off.

In stark contrast to the terrible conditions in his orphanage, the caretaker's office was well kept. Cpt Benjamen Morales said: "I got extremely angry with the caretaker. It took every muscle in my body to restrain myself."

He was turned over to the authorities but has since disappeared and is believed to be on the run.

"Two women working there have also disappeared but two security guards are in custody, arrested on the orders of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Cpt Jim Cook said: "My first thought when I walked in there was shock and then I got a little angry. Everybody just started getting upset. There were people crying. It was definitely a bad emotional scene."

For Staff Sgt Gibson, the hardest part was seeing the boy covered in flies. "He had thousands on his body and was unable to move. We had to hold his head up and tilt it to make sure he was okay. The only things moving were his eyeballs.

"Flies in the mouth, in the eyes, in the nose, ears, eating all the open wounds from sleeping on the concrete."

The boy is slowly recovering and has been relocated with his friends to another orphanage. Some of them still have marks on their ankles from being tied up.

Since only one boy can talk, it is impossible to know what terrible memories they have locked away.

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CAPTION(S):

HORRENDOUS: Boys left lying on orphanage floor; SAVED: Soldiers rescue and treat orphan victims