More Fallujah Hostage Sites Found

Troops Locate Cage Believed to Have Held British Engineer

Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force 2-2 stand in formation at a ceremony at a Marine base near Fallujah. (Jackie Spinner -- The Washington Post)

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 21 -- The U.S. military has found nearly 20 houses where intelligence officers said they believe hostages were killed or tortured in this city, including one containing a cage in which a British contractor who was beheaded last month was probably confined.

U.S. Army intelligence officers said the cage, discovered in a house in southern Fallujah, matched almost identically one shown in a videotape of the contractor, Kenneth Bigley, whose death was confirmed Oct. 10.

The house is near another raided by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers last week that was connected to associates of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant. A group headed by Zarqawi and linked to al Qaeda asserted responsibility for killing Bigley.

Bigley, 62, an engineer, became the first British hostage killed in Iraq. In a videotape aired on an Arab satellite network before his death, Bigley was shown in a metal cage with a chain around his neck, pleading for his life.

"They had a sick, depraved culture of violence in that city," said Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson, an operations officer with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Maj. James West, a Marine intelligence officer, said the houses, which he referred to as "places of atrocities," were scattered across Fallujah. Some had false walls that led to rooms splattered with blood. One house had bloody handprints on the wall. "They chained people to the walls," West said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces began an offensive on Nov. 8 to capture the insurgent-held city about 35 miles west of Baghdad. In some areas of Fallujah, the fighters had cordoned off entire blocks to use as bases for their operations. In other areas, they lived among residents.

"These thugs depended on fear and control," West said.

West said evidence existed that Zarqawi was in Fallujah at one time but that there was "no direct proof he occupied any house or another."

"It looks like we've found a number of houses where . . . the famous names have been held," West said, referring to hostages whose beheadings were widely reported in the news media.

Army intelligence officers said they were led to several of the houses by three Iraqi men who said they had been held captive in the city. The men had surrendered to Iraqi forces, waving a white flag with the word "help" scribbled on it in English.

The Army officers said they doubted that the men were victims and most likely were part of Zarqawi's ring or supported his terrorist network.

In an interview with The Washington Post at an Iraqi military base shortly after he was detained, one of the men said his captors hung him from a ceiling and beat him with electrical wires.

"One day someone came," said the 33-year-old man, who said he was a Baghdad resident but would not give his name. "I was blindfolded, and he said, 'Do you know who I am?' I said, 'No.' He said: 'I am your master, Abu Musab Zarqawi. I came to Iraq to honor you, your family and your people.' "