Suspected torture centre found in Nassariyah

US Marines said yesterday they had found photographs of burned bodies and a device to deliver electric shocks in what they suspect was a torture centre used

Files, documents and identity cards litter the floor of the low building in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya. US Marines who occupy the city believe it used to be an office of Saddam’s Baath Party or of the Iraqi intelligence service.

The most sinister part of the building is a dark corner room without windows. Five small cells lead off this room and in one of them was a battery connected to an iron rod which Marine Captain Pete McAleer said was “probably a primitive torture device”.