ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said: 'The disclosure of these photos is long overdue, but more important than the disclosure is the fact that hundreds of photographs are still being withheld.
'The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centers.
'The government's selective disclosure risks misleading the public about the extent of the abuse.'
Friday's release echoes images leaked to the media a decade ago showing the apparent torture of prisoners at the now-notorious Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.
In those pictures, naked detainees appeared stacked in a human pyramid while a soldier was pictured holding a naked detainee by a dog collar and leash.
Pentagon officials said the images are linked to 56 cases of alleged abuse, with 14 of those being upheld, and 65 service personnel disciplined
In order for the images to be released today, campaigners had to fight through courts for a decade, including overcoming a caveat to freedom of information laws created by Congress to keep these pictures hidden
Pentagon officials said today that the new images do not show abuse at Abu Ghraib or at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.
The images were released under freedom of information laws after a decade-long battle by ACLU, which saw a new legal loophole carved out by Congress in order to keep the pictures hidden.
The initial request was filed in 2003, months before the first Abu Ghraib images became public, and while the Bush administration admitted it had images of torture, the government refused to release them saying it would threaten national security.
That ruling was rejected in 2005, before the Obama administration pledged to release the pictures in 2009 following an unsuccessful government appeal.
Shortly before the images were made public, Congress approved a measure that allowed the Secretary of Defense to block any freedom of information request if it would harm national security.
While these images show relatively minor injuries, campaigners say among the pictures being kept secret are images of systemic torture including mock executions
Pentagon officials gave no context with the pictures - such as where they were taken, how the injury was sustained, and how long after the injury they waited to capture the image
Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a blanket certification for hundreds of photos in 2009, and his successor, Leon Panetta, issued an identical certification in 2012.
Last year courts ruled that, rather than issuing a blanket certification for all the images, the government would have to examine each picture individually and provide a justification for why each image would threaten national security.
Following that ruling, current Defense Secretary Ash Carter approved the release of these 198 images, but ACLU is still pursuing the others through the courts.
Alex Abdo, an ACLU staff attorney, added: 'In releasing the photos, the Defense Department points to the punishment of a handful of low-level soldiers, but the scandal is that no senior official has been held accountable or even investigated for the systemic abuse of detainees.
'What the photos that the government has suppressed would show is that abuse was so widespread that it could only have resulted from policy or a climate calculated to foster abuse.
'That is why the government must release all of the photos and why today's selective disclosure is so troubling.'
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