Secret Iraqi prisons found

2004-11-17 07:26

Fallujah - Hostages cried out and prayed their precious final moments away in an underworld of secret prisons discovered by the United States marines as they swept through the former rebel enclave of Fallujah last week.

A major US-Iraqi assault on the city uncovered at least two prisons and multiple execution rooms.

Fallujah's death row was not a sprawling penitentiary but the living rooms and bedrooms of its middle class homes where religious extremists set up shop, installed iron bar jail cells and unloaded bullets into the back of prisoners' heads.

Islamic insurgents have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners in Iraq since April when a US marine assault on Fallujah was aborted after a shaky ceasefire was reached.

30 hostages executed

At least 30 hostages have been executed in that time, including most recently the British-Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan, according to a video.

Fallujah, with its association to Islamist fundamentalists like Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, stands at the centre of the intrigue and brutality of the religious extremism plaguing Iraq.

Once known as the city of mosques, for the hundreds of minarets dotting its humble grey skyline, Fallujah has become a city of death, where more than 27 executed bodies, some of them with hacked off legs and arms, have been counted by AFP in its homes and on its streets in the last eight days.

In addition, the fight for Fallujah, launched last Monday, has claimed the lives of more than 1 200 rebels, 39 US troops and five Iraqi soldiers.

One of the execution rooms unearthed by the marines and dubbed the "Slaughter house" was believed to have been used by Zarqawi's terror group to behead foreign hostages, including American businessman Nicolas Berg, whose body was found in early May, said marine Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Malay.

The home, tucked between a furniture shop and another store, was blown up by the marines before journalists visited it, due to large amounts of explosive materials inside.

Just before the marines left the building, they heard banging on the wall. Upon inspection, they found a man handcuffed in a bathroom who told them that he was a cab driver.

In an other building they also found in a man in a bathroom. He was from a wealthy family from Baghdad and had a $250 000 dollar ransom on his head.

Secret prison unearthed

The sergeant described the building as an operation centre for the insurgents. At least 10 bomb-making factories and another 10 operation hubs have been found in the north-western section of Fallujah, marine officers told AFP.

The driver had been held with the journalists for two weeks at a house, but afterwards, the reporters were moved to another location, Bitanga said.

The driver said there were many prisoners held at the house.

Another secret prison was unearthed by the marines on Friday and visited by AFP within an hour of its discovery. - AFP

- SAPA