Baghdad, Aug 17 (DPA) The Iraqi government has done nothing to stop militias' torture and murder of gay men, the US-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.

The organisation estimated that hundreds of gay men have been tortured and murdered in Baghdad on suspicion of engaging in homosexual behaviour this year, following a campaign of incitement from leaders of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army.

'Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,' said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Programme at Human Rights Watch.

'Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.'

Witnesses and survivors told Human Rights Watch that masked men have pulled suspected homosexuals out of their homes at night, then murdered them, or attacked them in the street.