Is this Dungeon where ISIS kept Hostages?

Admin Sat 20 Dec 2014, 2:36 pm

EXCLUSIVE: Is this the Syrian dungeon where beheaded U.S. and British hostages were caged by ISIS?

Pictures show factory basement 'where half-starved westerners were held in darkness'
A Syrian held alongside the westerners claims factory basement shown on TV report is where he was held with Jim Foley and other hostages
Video and pictures show a dusty basement in Sheikh Najjar is strewn with blankets, tattered mattresses, cardboard, plastic bottles and other detritus
Westerners were caged there half-starved, in permanent darkness for months until December 2013 - before being handed over to 'Jihadi John'
One European captive claimed he saved eggs for Steven Sotloff, who secretly fasted on Yom Kippur. He didn't want ISIS to know he was Jewish
Guards treated Westerners better than Syrian prisoners - who were beaten and tortured - and were given treats like sweets and extra jam
Prison boss played cruel trick when they were being moved. He said they'd be freed - but instead were taken to Raqqa and Jihadi John
By JAMES HARKIN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 12:19, 19 December 2014 | UPDATED: 17:22, 19 December 2014
This is the first glimpse inside the secret underground prison where ISIS caged Western hostages - including James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines - former fellow prisoners have claimed.
Freed captives told MailOnline they lived in wretched conditions alongside them, half-starved on hard concrete floors in almost permanent darkness in the basement room of the abandoned factory in the Sheikh Najjar Industrial City, in the suburbs of Aleppo, during the last four months of 2013.
They were then moved to Raqqa, Syria, where they were handed over to their executioner, the infamous 'Jihadi John' and his death squad.
The former prisoners gave a chilling insight into the ordeal that the men - and allegedly one woman - endured in the bleak darkness.
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Hellish: A Syria TV reporter took this image in an abandoned factory turned ISIS prison in Sheikh Najjar, Syria - unaware that later it would be claimed that it was where Western hostages were kept for months
Separated: One hostage claimed that the basement was divided into two different sections; the first was converted into about 14 dingy single cells and the second into 12 single cells and three big rooms
Together in the dark: It is claimed that the Western hostage men were kept together in one of the larger rooms
One of the former hostages who talked to MailOnline identified the dungeon - either a disused wood or furniture factory - from footage broadcast by a pro-Syrian TV Channel earlier this year, after President Bashar Al-Assad's forces pushed out Islamist rebel groups from the heavily contested area.
But the Syrian reporter walking through the ISIS prison - before the world was revulsed by the video of Jim Foley's execution in August - had no idea that it had housed nearly 20 Western journalists and aid workers.
As he walks through, he points the cameraman to discarded blankets, tattered mattresses and plastic water bottles that are strewn around the dusty floor in the footage - haunting evidence of the miserable existence of the prisoners who had been caged there.
The reporter also posted images of his visit to the Sheikh Najjar prison to his Facebook page, showing the cubicles in which some of the prisoners were believed to have been kept.