HENDALA, Sri Lanka - Day after day, locked in a cement room somewhere in Iraq, the hooded men beat him. They told him he would be beheaded. "Ameriqi!" they shouted, even though he comes from this poor Sri Lankan fishing village. The virulently anti-American militants were convinced truck driver Denesh Dharmendra Rajaratnam was something he isn't: an American...His kidnappers called themselves the Islamic Army In Iraq and are among militants waging a brutal campaign of hostage-takings, beheadings and bombings trying to force American troops from Iraq and frighten others from supporting the U.S. effort... One by one, Rajaratnam said, [the other] captives were taken away and killed: the Egyptians beheaded, the Iraqis shot.
One day, four hooded men dragged Rajaratnam and his Bangladeshi colleague, Abul Kashem, from their makeshift cell. A banner was hung above them, and armed men stood beside them. "I was terrified, I knew this was what happened before a beheading," Rajaratnam said. "The Bangladeshi started crying. I begged them not to harm us, that we were only doing our job." ... After a few weeks, an English-speaking woman — Rajaratnam thinks she was Iraqi — questioned him. She was kinder than the others, and she realized he wasn't American, he said. Suddenly things changed. He and Kashem were given bread and tomatoes. They got Miami brand cigarettes — he saved a pack as a souvenir...Toward the end, the drivers were allowed to walk around inside and the militants grew increasingly friendly, he said. Their captors showed them video of ambushes on American forces and together they watched the Chuck Norris movie "The Hitman," which includes violent scenes of prisoner interrogations, and played computer games... Rajaratnam is happy to be back, but resents not having heard from American officials. He wasn't even interviewed by U.S. forces after his release, he said.
| A look at the "holy warriors"...smoking "Miami" cigs, playing computer games and getting their inspiration from Chuck Norris movies. Way to go, Lions of Islam (TM). |
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