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Posted by: kwflatbed


Photo by File
A soldier stands outside the farmhouse on outskirts of Baghdad where a torture chamber was found.

A crack team of U.S. troops led by a Bay State commander has uncovered an al-Qaeda torture chamber in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Army Lt. Col. Mark Solomon, 40, of Burlington, said his squadron discovered handcuffs attached to the floor and hanging from bars on windows, hooks in a wall used to hang victims and terrorist training materials in the torture house.
“It has certainly given us a window into the world of the enemy in a very real way,” he told the Herald in a satellite telephone interview from Iraq yesterday.
Solomon’s 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division pinpointed the house after locals began telling troops of an al-Qaeda torture base some 6 miles south of Baghdad.
He said his company worked with the Sons of Iraq, U.S.-funded Sunni tribesman who are now fighting al-Qaeda, to pinpoint the exact location of the torture house Wednesday.
“It is certainly an indicator to me of how the enemy worked in the area and how he used terror to control populations and to provide for his own security and ability to move around,” Solomon said.
The Burlington soldier said the house, part of a compound of three buildings set in a remote, rural area, was abandoned and will be demolished by U.S. forces.
“It makes you feel good to have found it and denied the enemy the ability to use it anymore,” Solomon said.
Solomon said his unit had fought and won a fierce gun battle with insurgents and, after securing the area, began hearing stories about the torture house from locals.
“In talking to people we heard that somewhere in the area was a facility like this. It is a very rural area, very much farmland. It’s very remote. But we found this complex of three buildings.”
Solomon has been in the military for 19 years and is on his second tour of duty in Iraq where he has been since last October.
“I signed up out of a sense of duty and sense of service to something bigger than myself,” he said.
Solomon’s wife Brenda and their two sons Justin, 9, and Owen, 6, are at Fort Stewart, Ga., the home base of the 3rd Infantry Division, but have family throughout Massachusetts.

http://bostonherald.com/news/regiona...icleid=1078438

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