| A U.S. Marine patrols outside a building where Marines believe insurgents tortured four men in Karabilah |
The victims, including one who said he had been held and tortured there for 22 days, told journalists they were beaten with a strip of rubber and received electric shocks for more than two weeks. The torture victims said the insurgents killed someone each day and threatened to kill them as well.
U.S. Marines discovered the men shackled in the torture center while conducting an anti-insurgent operation that began Friday near the Syrian border. In addition to the four captives, Marines found a weapons stockpile, electric wires to administer shocks, handcuffs, a noose and a thick jihad manual describing, among others things, how to choose the best hostage. The insurgents had apparently fled.