FALLUJAH, Iraq -- U.S. forces fighting in Fallujah found the bodies of 20 foreign fighters Friday in the southern part of the city who had been killed execution-style.
The men were described as foot soldiers with Monotheism and Jihad, a guerrilla group headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that now calls itself al-Qaida in Iraq, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Also an Iraqi cab driver was found chained to a wall, badly beaten and starving. He was rushed to a hospital for treatment. The reason for his abduction was not immediately clear.
Residents say Zarqawi's lieutenants ordered foreign fighters to man bunkers in two neighborhoods as other neighborhoods were to be defended by allied Muslim groups, the First Army of Mohammad and Ansar al-Sunna Army.
But residents said the U.S-led offensive opened strains between the local insurgents and the foreigners. When a senior Zarqawi commander was found dead of a bullet to the head during the battle, many interpreted his death as the result of an insurgent execution.
Besides the commander's death, the bodies of 20 foreign fighters also were found shot to death execution-style, military officials said.
