It looks as if the movement into Fallujah has broken up a major jihad center. From AP, :
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — U.S. Marines have found beheading chambers, bomb-making factories and even one Iraqi hostage as they swept through Fallujah – turning up hard evidence of the city’s role in the insurgent campaign to drive American forces from Iraq.
Marines on Sunday showed off what they called a bomb-making factory, where insurgents prepared roadside explosives and car bombs that have killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops.
Wires, cell phones, Motorola handheld radios and a Plastic foam box packed with C4 plastic explosives sat in the dark building down an alley, along with three balaclava-style masks reading: “There is only one god, Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”…
So far U.S. troops have only found two hostages, one Iraqi and one Syrian. Marines last week found the Iraqi in a room with a black banner bearing the logo of one of Iraq’s extremist groups. He was chained to the wall, shackled hand and foot in front of a video camera. The floor was covered with blood.
The rescued Syrian was the driver for two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, missing since August. The journalists have not been found, but France maintains they are still alive.
A Marine officer said he found signs that at least one foreign hostage was beheaded in that room. The Marine, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not give details….
When Marines uncovered the lab in a Saturday sweep, they also found Islamic Jihadist writings. A complete reading of the Koran on cassette tape lay in a box. Among the clutter where two wills, addressed to friends and family in Algeria.
“I will join my friends in heaven,” the will read. “Don’t cry for me. Celebrate my death.”