A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that two private U.S. military contractors could not be sued for allegedly abusing Iraqis who were detained and interrogated at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that wartime considerations required lawsuits against CACI International Inc. (CACI) and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.'s (LLL) Titan unit to be thrown out.

"During wartime, where a private service contractor is integrated into combatant activities over which the military retains command authority, a tort claim arising out of the contractor's engagement in such activities shall be preempted," Judge Laurence Silberman wrote for the majority.

The Iraqi plaintiffs alleged that they or their relatives were beaten, electrocuted, raped and subjected to other kinds of abuse by private contractors working as interpreters and interrogators at Abu Ghraib.

The dissenting judge in Friday's ruling noted that Presidents Bush and Obama each condemned the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and he said the Department of Defense has repeatedly stated that private contractors accompanying U.S. forces are not within the military's chain of command.

"No act of Congress and no judicial precedent bars the plaintiffs from suing the private contractors - who were neither soldiers nor civilian government employees," Judge Merrick Garland wrote.

A trial judge had previously dismissed the plaintiffs claims against Titan but had allowed the case against CACI to proceed.

CACI said in a statement that it did its work at Abu Ghraib with professionalism and integrity.

"No CACI personnel appeared in any of the notorious photographs at Abu Ghraib and no one affiliated with the company has been charged with any wrongdoing," said Paul Cofoni, the company's president and chief executive. "We have said from day one that these lawsuits are completely without merit and today's ruling vindicates that position."

A spokesperson for Titan and a lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; brent.kendall@dowjones.com