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20 torture chambers discovered in Fallujah
 The US military said it has discovered close to 20 torture sites in the course of its massive military operation against the insurgency in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. "They had a sick, depraved culture of violence in that city," Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Wilson, from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, told reporters at a briefing near the rebel city. "It looks like we found a number of houses," where torture took place, said intelligence officer Major Jim West. The US officers said the number of torture sites was "close to 20".The marines believe they found some of the houses where foreign hostages were held. Among them were the homes where British engineer Kenneth Bigley and his two US colleagues, Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong, were executed after being kidnapped in mid-September. Activities at the nearly 20 "atrocity sites" included "murder and torture", West said, as he showed slides of bloodstained walls and floors. "These thugs depended on fear and intimidation," West said, adding "hostages have been found chained to walls in some incidents." An AFP correspondent embedded with a marine unit saw 27 bodies that appeared to have been executed during the course the assault on Fallujah, and a prison inside a home where two mentally retarded men had been held and two corpses were found. Fallujah residents also told AFP about summary executions in the city, but the military's claims could not be verified independently as the city remained off-limits to foreign journalists during the onslaught. West also said close to 50 mosques had been used by insurgents for storing weapons and that nine bomb-making facilities had been discovered. Meanwhile, the marines stressed there were no plans to scale back their troop size in Fallujah although one 600-strong army task force from the 1st Infantry Division was to leave the city in a few days. "We will not scale back forces until such time when the security situation allows it," said Wilson, adding that house-clearing was still going on in Fallujah. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-11-22 |
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