BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American troops opened fire to put down a riot Monday at a prison camp in southern Iraq that left four inmates dead and six wounded, U.S. military officials said.
The riot at Camp Bucca began after a search for unspecified contraband in one of 10 compounds in the camp, according to a U.S. military statement.
The dead and wounded were the result both of gunfire and "violence by other detainees within the camp," the statement said, but no details were released.
The U.S. military said guards opened fire about 45 minutes into the riot, when verbal warnings and nonlethal measures failed to subdue the rioters.
"The facility's commander immediately deployed all available guards to the camp in an attempt to control the situation," the statement said.
"The riot quickly spread to three additional compounds, with detainees throwing rocks and fashioning weapons from materials inside their living areas."
The violence subsided after U.S. troops opened fire, the statement said. Three of the wounded were treated at the camp, and three others were taken to a military hospital for treatment.
U.S. commanders said the names of those killed were being given to the Iraqi government and the Red Cross.
The Army's Criminal Investigation Division has launched a probe into the riot, a move the Army said is routine in cases involving the deaths of prisoners.
Camp Bucca, south of Basra near the Kuwait border, houses about 5,300 prisoners. More than 2,900 of those were housed in the compounds affected by the rioting, the military said.
The camp was set up shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 as a detention facility for Iraqi troops captured in the early stages of the war.
A National Guard sergeant assigned there was reported to have died of "non-combat-related injuries" January 24.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba's May 2004 report on abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison also cited mistreatment at Camp Bucca. (Full story)