**** TORTURE CHAMBER FOUND ****
Friday, December 03, 2004
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Down a steep staircase littered with glass shards and rubble, U.S. Marines descended Thursday to a dark basement believed to have been one of Fallujah's torture chambers.
They found bloodstains and a single bloody hand print on the wall — evidence of the horrors once carried out in this former insurgent stronghold.
"We had sensed that there was a pure streak of evil in this town, ever since the first days of engagement here," said Maj. Wade Weems.
The basement, discovered while Marines fought fierce battles with Fallujah insurgents last month, is part of the Islamic Resistance Center (search), a three-story building in the heart of this city 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Maj. Alex Ray, an operations officer with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (search), said all evidence indicates the 15-foot-by-20-foot space was used by insurgents to imprison and torture their captives.
"Based on the evidence we have found here, we believe people were held here and possibly tortured — we have found enough blood to surmise that," Ray told reporters shown the basement Thursday.
foxnews.com
GZ |
