The U.S. military has deliberately manipulated or disregarded evidence and failed to properly investigate civilian deaths during its operations in Afghanistan, according to a report by international human rights group Amnesty International published on Monday.

The report, titled "Left in the Dark," is based on interviews with 125 Afghans directly involved in 16 separate incidents and 97 UN-reported attacks with civilian casualties in the past seven years.

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It focuses on 10 separate incidents that occurred from 2009 to 2013 and led to the deaths of 140 Afghan civilians, 50 of whom were children, the AFP reported.

Victims' relatives from nine of these cases claimed they had never been interviewed for investigation by the U.S. military, while none of the cases had ever been prosecuted, said Amnesty International Asia Pacific Director Richard Bennett.

An incident detailed in the Amnesty report told of a raid by a U.S. Special Forces unit on Feb. 12, 2010. Five civilians - two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two justice officials - were killed in the attack. When the unit realized there was no threat in the house and had killed civilians, they had reportedly proceeded to pull out the bullets from the bodies, said Muhammad Tahir, a witness in the incident.

News reports following the incident revealed an intended cover-up as the media was fed with stories that hinted at execution murder or honor killing.

Another account suggesting a rogue unit had carried out torture and extrajudicial killings was also detailed in the report.

Civil servant Qandi Agha, 51, said he was captured by the unit and brought to a wooden cell where he was told he would be subjected to 14 kinds of torture, saying he would be freed if he survived.

He claimed the soldiers subjected him to simulated drowning, electric shocks, beating and had even tightly tied a string around his penis.

"My abdomen was bulging. I wasn't able to pee for four days," Agha said.

Joanne Mariner, author of the report, said the U.S. had knowledge of the complaints since 2012. She questioned why no action was taken to stop the abuse.

While the U.S. did not deny the allegations, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Bradlee Avots said the U.S. upholds its policy on torture, adding that the Department of Defense does not allow its personnel to engage in such acts that would degrade any person in its custody.

Avots stressed that as per standard U.S. policy, civilian deaths suspected to have been carried out under unlawful military operations are investigated and are subject to criminal convictions.

TagsAmnesty International, US, Afghanistan, war crime, civilian casualties, Richard Bennett, Joanne Mariner, us military