United States and Iraqi troops fighting for control of Fallujah on Wednesday uncovered several ”hostage slaughter houses” where kidnap victims had been murdered, a senior Iraqi general said.
The buildings, in northern parts of the city known to be an insurgent stronghold, were littered, he said, with debris from insurgents including lists of names of hostages who had been held.
Major General Abdul Qader Mohan, the commander of Iraqi forces fighting in the city, said his men discovered ”the black clothing that they used to wear so no one knew it was them”.
The soldiers also found hundreds of CDs showing beheadings and ”whole records with names of hostages”, he said. ”This is what our soldiers found in some of the houses that were used to hold hostages and kill them.”
But he said he did not know if any foreigners currently held captive such as the two French journalists missing since August or the British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan were on the hostage list.
More than 100 foreigners, mostly working for the United States, have been kidnapped since April by Islamist insurgents operating in Fallujah.
At least 35 hostages have been killed, often beheaded with knives and their deaths captured on video footage. Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been behind many of the deaths. On Wednesday, another Islamist group said it had kidnapped three relatives of the interim Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi.
The discovery came as American and Iraqi troops continued their sweep through the city, claiming they controlled 70% of Falluja, including key buildings.
George Bush, the US president, said commanders had told him ”things are going well in Fallujah”.
By the end of the third full day of operations, US troops had taken up positions around two mosques, in the main police station and in the town hall next door, raising an Iraqi flag.
But forces continued to come under fire from insurgents.
Iraqi rebels released a video on Wednesday night showing what they said were 20 Iraqi national guards captured during the fighting.
The video, a copy of which was given to Reuters, showed masked rebels pointing rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers at a group of men with their backs to the camera wearing national guard uniforms. The video could not be immediately authenticated.
US commanders said 11 troops and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed in the battle and at least 31 Americans and 16 Iraqis injured. The military said at least 70 insurgents had died, although there was no independent confirmation.
Although the death toll on the US side is higher than in the first assault on Fallujah in April, officers were confident the insurgents were being beaten. ”We are comfortable that they are not able to communicate, to work out any coordination,” said Lieutenant General John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is leading the fight. ”They are now in small pockets, blind, moving about the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them.”
Allawi said he would press on with the attack, despite the kidnap of his relatives from their home in Baghdad. He said some groups were preparing to surrender and may be offered an amnesty.
Other US commanders have said there may yet be days of ”tough urban fighting” ahead.
Lieutenant General Thomas Metz, the second most senior commander in Iraq, said many senior insurgent leaders, including Zarqawi, had probably fled the city.
Aid officials voiced growing concern about the situation in Fallujah and the surrounding areas where thousands of families have fled to find shelter.
Reports from the city spoke of bodies lying unattended in the streets and continued food, electricity and water shortages.
The Iraqi Red Crescent will attempt on Thursday to deliver food and medical supplies.
Across the rest of Iraq there were outbreaks of heavy fighting. The Iraqi government imposed an immediate and indefinite curfew in the northern city of Mosul.
On Thursday night, police in Baghdad said a car bomb aimed at police patrol cars had killed up to 10 civilians.
Baghdad airport, which was shut on Monday, will remain closed for at least another 24 hours. – Guardian Unlimited Â