Posted on 06/19/2005 5:33:40 PM PDT by blam
Iraqi army hostage survives 22 days of torture by rebels
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 20/06/2005)
A hostage who was found shackled in a torture room in Iraq by American soldiers has described how he was tormented for 22 days with electric shocks and daily beatings for no obvious reason.
Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, who had served briefly with the Iraqi army, is one of the few to have survived abduction by insurgents.
Ahmed Isa Fathil did not know why he was kidnapped
He recounted how he was kidnapped while eating lunch with his mother, bundled into the boot of a car and taken to the building in Karabila, close to the Syrian border.
He was locked in a darkened room, with his face covered with black tape and he was flogged with rubber truncheons.
The electric shocks felt "like my soul being ripped out of my body". But when his body went into spasm, his captors would beat him. He said he was never questioned and did not know why he had been captured.
US marines who burst into the building at the weekend, during an operation to flush insurgents out of the border towns, found Mr Fathil with three other captives. One had been beaten unconscious and the two others were so emaciated that they needed hospital treatment.
The room was equipped with electric wires, a noose, handcuffs and a 574-page manual entitled The Principles of Jihadist Philosophy.
It included chapters on ''How to Select the Best Hostage'' and ''The Legitimacy of Cutting the Infidel's Head''.
The US military claims that more than 50 insurgents have so far been killed as 1,000 marines fanned through the region around Qaim close to the Syrian border, which is believed to be a main entry point into the country for foreign jihadists.
Operation Spear, is the third in the past six weeks to target the sparsely populated Euphrates Valley.
On Saturday two British Tornados were called on to provide support. It is unusual for the RAF to operate so far north in Iraq.
The Ministry of Defence said that they were not required to engage any targets on the ground, although US aircraft are reported to have bombed targets in the area.
Until April only 400 American troops were permanently based in the region, enabling insurgents to develop supply routes for money, weapons and fighters and to take over several towns.
American officers have described each of the previous operations as a success. But all appear to have followed a similar pattern: the militants scatter before regrouping to reclaim their strongholds once the US troops return to their bases. It is uncertain if the latest operation will achieve a more long lasting impact.
Members of the Iraqi army have been a favoured target of militant groups. Recruitment centres and barracks have been bombed and a number of soldiers kidnapped and then killed to try to deter enlistment and encourage desertions.
In Baghdad yesterday a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people at a restaurant favoured by police officers that is located only 400 yards from the heavily fortified Green Zone.
nice folks.
um...does it ever occur to the liberal media that this is worse than abu graib or gitmo?
DICK Durbin PING!!
No glazed chicken L'orange?
Sean Hannity should know about this....as should Durbin!
Was his lemon chicken served to him at he correct temperature?
This needs to be front page tomorrow after all the carrying on about Gitmo and Abu Ghraib (sp?) In addition...paging Dick Turbin...ping
thank Allah! They didn't play w/ the A/C thermostat!
Hope they didn't violate his personal space with female...
Perhaps it was the music they played?
But still, let's instead punish the pregnant gal who posed for a picture with perfectly healthy naked insurgents-on-a-leash.
ping!
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