Hostage 'Slaughterhouses' Found in Fallujah

[-Cp]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138150,00.html


NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — Iraqi troops have found "hostage slaughterhouses" in Fallujah (search) where foreign captives were held and killed, the commander of Iraqi forces in the city said Wednesday.

Troops found CDs and documents of people taken captive in houses in the northern part of Fallujah, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan told reporters.

The most notorious abductions in Iraq have been by the Al Qaeda-linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search), who was believed to be in Fallujah but who commanders now say likely fled the city before the huge offensive launched this week by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Mohan did not say that remains of captives were found and did not comment on whether the houses were believed linked to al-Zarqawi or any of several other militant groups that have claimed kidnappings.

"We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people and the black clothing that they used to wear to identify themselves, hundreds of CDs and whole records with names of hostages," the general said at a military camp near Fallujah.

Mohan was unsure if the hostage records included the names of any of the at least nine foreigners still in the hands of kidnappers — most notably, British aid worker Margaret Hassan (search), French journalists Christian Chesnot (search) and Georges Malbrunot (search) and two Americans.

"I did not look closely" at the documents, he said.

More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped this year, and more than 30 of them have been killed by their captors.

Al-Zarqawi's followers have beheaded three Americans, two Britons, a Japanese and a South Korean, usually releasing grisly videos showing the decapitations.

 

[-Cp]

Wow - can't believe nobody here found this as interesting as I did...

 

[nbdysfu]

I'd like to know how many of the 170 were held in Fallujah.

 

[NATO AIR]

that is sickening. i only hope with the fall of fallujah to freedom, the great majority of these hostage slaughters will be stopped.

 

[Adam's Apple]

Troops Find Captive chained to Wall in Iraq
Thursday, November 11, 2004
cnn.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces found and freed an Iraqi who had been chained to a wall and beaten by his captors in a building in Falluja, the military said Thursday. The man told Marines he was a taxi driver held for 10 days.

The man was bruised and starving when troops came across him Wednesday afternoon in the building in a northeastern district of the city, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a huge assault against Sunni insurgents.

Marines spokesman Maj. Francis Piccoli said that U.S. troops had found the man chained to a wall and shackled by his wrists and ankles. The man had been beaten by his captors and was very malnourished, according to medical assessments.

A variety of weapons was discovered at the site as well, he said.

Piccoli said he did not know the man's nationality but that he was not an American or Westerner.

ABC pool footage showed the man telling Marines that he was an Iraqi taxi driver who had been held for 10 days until the Marines freed him.

The man, who was shirtless and wrapped up in a blanket, had what appeared to be bruises on his neck and back.

Speaking through an Iraqi translator, the man said his captors put cuffs on his legs and hands and beat him with thick electrical cable.

He said he thought he would be killed. He also said he had not been given food or water for several days.

An Iraqi general said Wednesday that troops had uncovered buildings where foreign hostages had been held and possibly killed, finding CDs of beheadings and documents of foreign captives.

More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq this year, and more than 30 of them were slain by their captives.

At least nine remain in the hands of kidnappers and their fate is unknown.

One of the most notorious kidnappers, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been thought to be in Falluja but is believed to have fled before this week's offensive.


Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[waltky]

Ya win some, ya lose some...

Iraqi, U.S. airstrikes destroy 500 Islamic State vehicles fleeing Fallujah
June 30, 2016 -- Hundreds of Islamic State vehicles fleeing the city of Fallujah have been destroyed by airstrikes in recent days, killing an unknown number of militants.

On Sunday, Iraqi security forces said the city of Fallujah was "fully liberated" from IS control. On Monday, the Iraqi military, aided by the U.S.-coalition, began targeting militants fleeing Fallujah through the south of the city. CNN reported more than 500 vehicles have been destroyed in the operation that was still underway Thursday.

At least 200 vehicles carrying Islamic State militants were destroyed in airstrikes on Wednesday alone. Officials have not disclosed how many militants in the group, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, were killed in the airstrikes. "All ISIS militants traveling in these vehicles were killed," Brig. Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operation Command, told NBC News.

Iraqi Lt. General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi, the commander in charge of the liberation of the Fallujah, said Iraqi forces killed more than 1,800 Islamic State militants during the offensive to recapture the city and surrounding villages. The Islamic State seized control of Fallujah in 2014 and Iraqi security forces began the offensive to retake the city in May. The Iraqi military released a video of Wednesday's airstrikes. Dozens of weapons were found in the vehicles. The Pentagon said it did not have details on the incident.

Iraqi, U.S. airstrikes destroy 500 Islamic State vehicles fleeing Fallujah

See also:

ISIS Routs Offensive by US-Backed Syrian Rebels
Jun 29, 2016 | New Syrian Army rebels backed by the U.S. were driven back from a Syrian town on the Iraqi border by an ISIS counter-attack.

ISIS showed its resilience Wednesday with a counterattack that forced U.S.-backed Syrian rebels to abandon an offensive aimed at capturing a Syria-Iraq border town whose success would have effectively cut the so-called "caliphate" in two. In another blow to the U.S. effort to train and equip "moderate" Syrian rebels, the surprise attack by ISIS inflicted a defeat on New Syrian Army effort to take the town of al-Boukamal, just across the border from the Iraqi town of al-Qaim. The New Syrian Army forces retreated and reportedly were regrouping in the desert. Muzahem al Saloum, a spokesman for the New Syrian Army, told Reuters, "We have withdrawn to the outlying desert and the first stage of the campaign has ended." "The news is not good," another rebel source told Reuters. "I can say our troops were trapped and suffered many casualties and several fighters were captured and even weapons were taken."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported that the New Syrian Army had been driven back from al-Boukamal. The ISIS-linked Amaq news agency said ISIS fighters also drove the rebels from the nearby Hamdan air base while seizing 15 hostages and ammunition. Al-Boukamal was considered the last remaining key supply and communications routes for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria between its branches in Iraq and Syria. Earlier Wednesday in a briefing from Baghdad to the Pentagon, Army Col. Chris Garver said that the New Syrian Army had been steadily advancing on al-Boukamal with the backing of U.S. airstrikes. To the north in Syria in the ISIS-held town of Manbij, forces of the Syrian-Arab Coalition (SAC), another Syrian rebel faction backed by the U.S., seized the entrances to a major tunnel complex and also confiscated numerous documents, cell phones and hard drives, said Garver, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

U.S.-backed Syrian rebels of the New Syrian Army run in an unknown place in Syria.​

However, ISIS defenders were "providing a tough fight to the SAC," using interlaced networks of earthen berms and improvised explosive devices, to blunt the effort to take Manbij, Garver said. In Iraq, Garver said that a combination of Iraqi police and Sunni tribal forces from Anbar province had begun moving into Fallujah to restore order following the liberation last week of the city 40 miles west of Baghdad. "It's going on right now. We're seeing that handover starting to take place" from the Iraqi Security Forces in control of Fallujah to the police and tribal forces, Garver said.

The resistance by ISIS fighters in Fallujah "was not as stiff as what we saw in Ramadi," Garver said, referring to the city west of Fallujah that was retaken late last year. The effort to retake Fallujah forced thousands of residents to flee, resulting in overcrowded tent camps on the outskirts without shelter or water for many, according to the United Nations and humanitarian groups. The U.S. military has not been tasked with providing relief for the Fallujah refugees and there were no plans to do so in the works, Garver said. "That's clearly outside CJTF's lane," he said. "We haven't been asked to provide that type of support" and "we are not providing that support right now."

ISIS Routs Offensive by US-Backed Syrian Rebels | Military.com