Bigley's cage found in Fallujah torture house

By KIM SENGUPTA

A cage in which Kenneth Bigley is believed to have been held as a hostage has been found by American forces in Fallujah.

It was discovered in one of 20 houses where foreign captives are thought to have been kept by insurgents including a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The chicken-wire cage, 2m high and 1.2m deep, was seen in a video released by Zarqawi's group in which Bigley is filmed, chained, pleading for his life.

The walls of the room were bloodstained with Arabic writing and what appeared to be a fingerprint in dried blood.

Bigley was beheaded, but it is not clear if that happened at the same house. Reports have suggested the murder took place in Latafiyah, 32km south of Baghdad.

The US military says an Iraqi civilian, who was taken prisoner by Zarqawi's group but later released, had said he heard the voices of at least three other hostages in a neighbouring room, including one he believed was that of Bigley.

The British building contractor was kidnapped from his Baghdad home in September with two Americans who were also decapitated.

US forces say they had taken away handcuffs, shackles, bayonets and knives, including one said to feature in beheading videos, from the houses. They will be used for forensic analysis including DNA testing.

In one building hostages are said to have been tortured and interrogated in an alcove with nails sticking out of bloodstained walls.

A US intelligence officer, Major Jim West, said "murder and torture took place in these houses. Hostages have been found chained to walls".

Meanwhile, a journalist with NBC who filmed a US Marine shooting dead an injured prisoner in a mosque said there was no apparent sudden movement from the prisoner before he was killed.

Kevin Sites said the Marine became apologetic once he realised the shooting had been filmed, saying "I didn't know, sir, I didn't know."

Sites wrote in his web log site: "Through my viewfinder I can see him [the Marine] raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.

"However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he is going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons. Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.

"I was not watching from a hundred feet away. I was in the same room. Aside from breathing, I did not observe any movement. I can't know what was in the mind of the Marine."

Sites said he considered destroying the tape. "I considered not feeding the tape to the pool - or even, for a moment, destroying it.

"But that thought created the same pit in my stomach that witnessing the shooting had ... I would be faced with the fact that I had betrayed truth as well as a life supposedly spent in pursuit of it."

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Herald Feature: Iraq