BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- One glance at an unusual door to a house west of Falluja launched U.S. troops on a hunt that led to the capture of four men suspected of kidnapping Jill Carroll, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.


U.S. troops at the unusual door that led them to enter the suspected kidnap lair.

A Marine lieutenant thought he recognized a small structure on the door and the gate from intelligence reports about the U.S. journalist's 82-day abduction, spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.

The homeowner let the Marine and his team from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force into the building where they found a specific bookcase that led them to believe they had found where Carroll was held immediately before she was freed, Caldwell said at a news conference in Baghdad. (Watch video of the house where Jill Carroll was allegedly held -- 2:04)

"The young Marine ... continued to follow up on what he remembered from the reports and [was] able to specifically identify some features associated with that ...

"He determined that, in fact, he had probably found the house where kidnap victims may have been held, specifically in this case, Jill Carroll."

The officer who pieced the clues together, 1st Lt. Jake Cusack, 24, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, then radioed his commanding officer.

"Hey, sir, don't react but this is it," Cusack recalled, in an interview with The Associated Press.

Fellow Marines said they found a slip of paper in the house with Carroll's name written on it, $3,600 in cash, and an AK-47 hidden in a car outside. A false ceiling in the shower, said to hide explosives, was also found, AP reported.

The house, in al-Habaniya, was in sight of Taqqadum Air Base, used by the U.S. military, AP said.

1st. Sgt. Chris Reed, 32, of Kirkland, Washington, told AP: "They didn't seem to worry that they were that close to a military base. Maybe they thought it'd be the last place anybody would look."




http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html