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US military: higher incidence of sexual assault

WASHINGTON, Saturday (AFP) US military personnel were involved in 1,700 reported cases of sexual assault last year, either as the alleged assailant or the victim, in what appeared to be a substantial increase over the year before, the Defense Department said Friday.

Pentagon officials attributed the increase in part to greater efforts to encourage victims to report sexual assaults following a rape scandal at the Air Force Academy in 2003.

"Another reason we're not shocked (by the increase) is we believe the underreporting of sexual assault is rampant," said Lieutenant Colonel Joe Richard, a Pentagon spokesman.

Richard said the total this year also was higher because in previous years statistics were kept only on the number of reported assaults in which US servicemembers were victims. Even so, the number of comparable cases of alleged sexual assaults against military personnel totalled 1,225 in 2004, more than a 20 percent increase over the year before.

In 2003, the Pentagon reported 1,012 allegations of sexual assault against US military personnel, and the year before the number totalled 901.

The total for all sexual assault cases in 2004 came to just over 1,700, including those cases that involved servicemembers as the alleged assailant.

Most of the cases - 880 - involved alleged assaults of one servicemember against another.

The department reported that investigations have been completed in 1,362 cases, and another 340 cases are pending.

Punitive actions ranging from court-martials to non-judicial or administrative sanctions were taken in 342; allegations were deemed unsubstantiated or unfounded in 351 cases; and in 278 cases, the alleged assailant was not identified.

Another 51 cases were handled in US civilian courts or by foreign authorities.

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