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Fear The Worst?

Marines Find Only Bloodied Uniforms In Search for Missing [POW] Soldiers

Wall Street Journal | Apr 8, 2003 | MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS

BAGHDAD -- Marines raided a prison in search of American prisoners of war but found only bloodied uniforms from at least six U.S. troops.

The Marines concluded from evidence on the scene that the facility's guards and perhaps their captives had departed in recent days -- if not hours.

In a hastily arranged raid, hundreds of Marines descended on the military complex on the southeast edge of the capital at about 1 a.m. Tuesday local time. Most secured the outside, while 200 troops from Lima Company -- a First Division unit that is part of the Third Battalion, Seventh Regiment -- searched the inside.

They were sent there based on intelligence indicating that American troops were being held there. Though the Marines had encountered occasional pot-shot resistance on the way to the complex, they walked into it unimpeded because it was abandoned.

The uniforms were found inside a 10-foot-by-10-foot cell, its heavy metal door ajar. The clothing -- splattered with varying amounts of blood -- consisted of six desert-colored camouflage fatigue pants and jackets from two chemical-protection suits, one with what appeared to be a blood-crusted bullet hole in the arm. One of the jackets was marked with a date indicating it had been taken out of its factory-sealed package on March 11.

Two of the pants had duct-tape labels on the inside bearing their owners' names and ranks, both peculiar to the Army, leading their would-be rescuers to believe at least two of the troops were Army soldiers. Military-intelligence officials took the clothing for forensic analysis. There also were some blankets in the cell, but no other personal effects. The Marines searched for any markings the troops might have left on the walls as clues.

It couldn't be determined from evidence on the scene if the Americans had survived. The Pentagon lists seven Army soldiers and no Marines as prisoners of war. Six marines and one soldier are listed as missing in action.

The large, spare multicellblock complex, topped with corrugated metal roofs, included a quadrangle of rows of cells surrounding a courtyard. The American uniforms were found in the last cell in one row. The complex's cell doors each had sliding latches for padlocks and a small circular hole covered by a square hatch at face level.

The Marines blasted some of the complex's buildings open with explosives, and almost all the other cells appeared to have been unoccupied for some time. But the guard barracks appeared to have been fairly recently abandoned, the Marines concluded.

The cells were 18-feet high, with a singled barred window about three feet below the ceiling. They were painted white. The cellblock halls were gray on the bottom and white on the top and decorated with red-stenciled flowers.

In the courtyard, several vials of antibiotics were scattered about, along with a single syringe. The exterior walls were 15 feet high and topped with concertina wire, a guard tower on each corner.

The Marines were dismayed, depressed and angry as they prepared to leave the facility.