Map locates Youssifiyah, Iraq, where a U.S. soldier has been killed and two are missing. (AP Graphic)
Posted on 06/16/2006 5:54:09 PM PDT by TexKat
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. Published: June 18, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 18 — American forces have intensified their search for two soldiers missing and reportedly held captive by insurgents, widening their pursuit to areas beyond the restive town of Yusifiya, where the missing servicemen were attacked Friday night, and drawing troops from at least three brigade combat teams.
The expanded search effort came as American troops ringed the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi with new checkpoints and outposts over the weekend in an effort to break the grip that insurgents now hold on that city. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, has been the scene of some of the fiercest regular battles between United States troops and insurgent fighters.
Some Sunni Arab leaders have said they fear American forces are preparing to begin an offensive in Ramadi in an effort to wipe out insurgent groups that have taken control of much of the city, similar to the Marines' November 2004 assault on Falluja. More
GIs abducted in death triangle
From Ned Parker in Baghdad
THE US military mounted a huge search over the weekend for two American soldiers apparently abducted by insurgents in an area known as the Triangle of Death last Friday.
Witnesses said that the insurgents staged what appeared to be a well-planned attack that divided the pair from their colleagues so that they could be seized. If so, that would mark a sinister new development in the insurgents’ tactics.
Only one US soldier is known to have been abducted since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and he has not been seen since. If these two are found dead, or the insurgents release a videotape of their fate, it would be a serious blow to the White House, just when the formation of the new Iraqi Government and the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had boosted public support for the war.
The missing GIs were part of a team of about 12 US soldiers equipped with three Humvees who were manning a checkpoint near Yusufiyah, about 50km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, last Friday evening.
Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer, told the Associated Press news agency that the team were fired on from palm groves along the road. Some of the soldiers went after the assailants in two of the Humvees. Six masked gunmen then attacked the third Humvee, killing the driver. After radio communications went dead, an emergency team arrived at the checkpoint within minutes to find one soldier dead and two others missing. Witnesses said that the gunmen had driven the two soldiers away in cars.
The rescue operation began almost immediately. Civilian traffic was stopped and the area cordoned off. All weekend helicopters scoured the area from the air. Divers searched the River Euphrates and irrigation canals. Soldiers conducted house-to-house searches but found no trace of the soldiers.
The outlook appeared grim. The Triangle of Death, a pastoral land of date and orange groves between the Tigris and Euphrates, has been a bastion of al-Qaeda militants for more than two years. It has been afflicted by roadside murders and kidnappings since the autumn of 2003. Many Shia families have fled their homes after coming under attack from Sunni extremists. Religious pilgrims heading to the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala have often been ambushed. In turn Shia militias have taken out revenge on the Sunni population of the region.
But repeated drives by the US military to impose order have failed to tame the triangle, allowing some of its communities to become havens for insurgents. Tony Snow, a White House spokesman, gave a sober assessment of the situation yesterday. “We’re simply trying to find them,” he said. “We hope they’re alive.” The insurgents were trying to use the capture of the US servicemen to “ drive a wedge between American public opinion . . . It’s important to remember that we’re involved in a war in Iraq . . . the insurgents are going to do everything they can.”
Major-General William Caldwell, the leading US military spokesman in Iraq, said: “We are currently using every means at our disposal on the ground, in the air and in the water to find them.”
The last known abduction of a US soldier was that of Sergeant Matt Maupin, seized by insurgents near Fallujah after the start of a Sunni revolt in April 2004. A video sent to the al-Jazeera satellite TV channel claimed to show the body of the sergeant, but it did not show his face. The US military lists him as missing.
The attack coincided with a weekend in Baghdad that left more than 50 people killed in bombings. Gunmen stormed a bakery yesterday in the Shia district of Kadhimiya and snatched ten employees. Ten bodies, showing signs of torture, were also found in different parts of Baghdad overnight. The violence appeared to be a direct challenge to a new government security plan that put 50,000 Iraqi forces on the streets of the capital last week.
The Mujahidin Shura Council, an Islamist extremist umbrella organisation, which includes al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for four of seven car bombings on Saturday. Last week the Iraqi Government said that al-Zarqawi’s death had put the extremist group on the run. In Basra last night the Sunnis closed all but one of their mosques after the killing of a cleric last Friday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2232027,00.html
Map locates Youssifiyah, Iraq, where a U.S. soldier has been killed and two are missing. (AP Graphic)
Please pray I'm wrong.
I am praying regardless Dog. My heart is in the pit of my stomach and has been since I heard this on Friday evening.
When Free Republic first started circa 1997/1998, one thing that it did very well was to expose the generally well-crafted and often slightly hidden propaganda in news articles. Over time this became less necessary as the quality of writing declined in the news media (the Left seems to be losing IQ points each year).
But the above propaganda harks back to the days when the Left did it well.
Kidnapping 10 civilians isn't a "direct" challenge; it's an indirect one at best, and pales in comparsion to the scope of fielding 50,000 troops on a whim.
That didn't stop the writer for the above article, though.
Over time this became less necessary as the quality of writing declined in the news media
The remaining insurgents are no doubt grasping...desperately hoping that they can hit a home run before the lights are turned out on their stadium.
...And if a WJC was in Office then a Mogadishu-style video might be their winning hit.
...but President Bush is not so easily cowed. Quite the opposite. Insurgent attrocities will backfire in more ways than I have the inclination to enumerate.
I do pray for our troops, though. There's still pain ahead even though our own victory is in sight.
It's ideological. If you look at the Right, you'll see the GOP grudgingly move in the correct direction on an issue (e.g. immigration) when the grass roots raise enough h3!!.
When the Left loses a national election, however, (e.g. 2004 Presidential race), their leadership cries out that America needs to be better educated on their views ("Our message didn't get out" they'll claim).
In other words, change the masses rather than change the views of the Left.
To that end, their willing minions in the news media go to further extremes to manipulate the Public (because the Public is otherwise rejecting the Left's messages).
This has led the news media down a path of diminishing returns...they have to be more and more sensationalistic (e.g. "Karl Rove is a traitor!") to get less and less support.
Drug addicts learn of this cycle the hard way, fast. Politics is slower. Same eventual end for both, though.
Something doesn't compute. Two cars go out usually, and they are no more than 5 minutes away. Heard the response didn't come for fifteen minutes.
It's simply awful- every news article has become an editorial.
It struck me when I read this from one of the pieces TexKat posted above:
A Youssifiyah resident, who claimed his house was searched by U.S. soldiers Sunday afternoon, also said the Americans used translators to offer $100,000 for information leading to those who took the soldiers.
He said he would not cooperate because he was angry with the Americans.
"I will not do it even if they pay $1 million," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution. "They deserve all that they are facing … We are living a hard life because of them."
Coalition, Iraqis Launch Massive Search for Missing Soldiers
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
BAGHDAD, June 17, 2006 – Coalition and Iraqi officials have launched a massive search operation for two coalition soldiers missing following an incident in Yusufiyah, Iraq, yesterday.
Multinational Force Iraq spokesman Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said today a third soldier was killed in the fight. The names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The soldiers were manning a checkpoint at a canal crossing near the Euphrates River. Forces at a nearby traffic-control point heard an explosion and small-arms fire at about 7:55 p.m. yesterday.
A quick-reaction force responded and arrived on the scene within 15 minutes, Caldwell said. They found one soldier killed and the other two missing.
Those missing have been listed as "duty status and whereabouts unknown." This category changes to "missing in action" if they are not found in 10 days.
"Coalition soldiers and Iraqi security forces initiated a search operation within minutes to determine the status of (the missing) soldiers, and we are currently using every means at our disposal on the ground, in the air and in the water to find them," Caldwell said.
Following the incident, commanders notified all traffic-control points to stop civilian traffic and increase security. Coalition officials also dispatched helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles to aid the search.
"Within an hour of the incident, blocking positions were established throughout the area in a concerted effort to focus the search and prevent movement of suspects out of the area," Caldwell said.
In addition, coalition forces launched three raids, one today and two yesterday, on suspected terrorist safe houses in the area. Dive teams are searching the canals and river near the site.
Yusufiyah has been the site of many extremist incidents. In April, coalition forces killed and captured a number of foreign fighters hiding in the area. Battles in May resulted in the deaths of more than 40 Sunni extremists. Yusifiyah is a predominantly Sunni town about 10 miles south of Baghdad.
Coalition and Iraqi forces met with local leaders to enlist their aid in finding the missing soldiers.
"We continue to search using every means available and will not stop looking until we find the missing soldiers," Caldwell said. "Make no mistake: We never stop looking for our servicemembers until their status is definitively determined, and we will continue to pray for their safe return."
Only one soldier is listed as missing in action during the three-plus years of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Terrorists said they captured Army Sgt. Matt Maupin in April 2004. A videotape alleged to show Maupin appeared on an extremist Web site.
http://www.dod.mil/news/Jun2006/20060617_5444.html
2 Missing U.S. Soldiers Are Sought in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 17 — American soldiers on Saturday went house to house, scanned the streets from helicopters and dove into irrigation canals to try to find two of their comrades who had been reported captured by insurgents in an ambush south of the capital.
The two Americans, who were not identified, were taken prisoner at dusk on Friday by a group of masked guerrillas who mounted a surprise attack on their Humvee near Yusufiya, a town that is a stronghold of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Iraqis in the area said.
The American command in Baghdad confirmed that two Americans were missing on Friday after insurgents attacked a checkpoint they had set up on a canal crossing near the Euphrates River. One soldier was killed in the attack, which appeared to be an elaborate lure intended to isolate part of the force.
"We are currently using every means at our disposal on the ground, in the air and in the water to find them," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the spokesman for the American military.
According to Iraqis in the area, who were interviewed by telephone from Baghdad, the two American soldiers who survived the gun battle were led away by the insurgents to a pair of cars.
Hassan Abdul Hadi was tending to his date palms and apple trees near the village of Karagol when he heard gunfire and explosions. When he walked to the road, he spotted an American Humvee, he said.
"I was shocked to see the Humvee — nothing seemed to be wrong with it," Mr. Hadi said. "Then I heard the men shouting 'God is great!' and I saw that they had taken the Americans with them. The gunmen took them and drove away."
At the time of the attack, the American soldiers were at a traffic control checkpoint on the edge of Karagol. According to the Iraqis, the checkpoint was guarded by about a dozen American soldiers who had arrived in three Humvees.
The checkpoint came under fire from insurgents operating from the fruit groves that line the road. The Americans in two of the Humvees took off in pursuit as the insurgents retreated into the groves, possibly to lure them in, the Iraqis said, leaving one Humvee and only three or four American soldiers at the checkpoint.
The checkpoint then came under attack from another direction by a group of seven or eight guerrillas, wearing kaffiyehs over their faces and black track suits, the Iraqis said. At least one of them carried a heavy machine gun, and two of them carried rocket-propelled grenades.
Minutes after the two Americans were taken away, a team of Americans arrived and began searching door to door in the area, the Iraqis said. By Saturday morning, the search had intensified, with soldiers scouring the area, helicopters surveying the landscape from above and divers going into canals, the American military said in a statement.
"The Americans are going house to house, detaining any men they find," said Yusef Abdul Nasir, who lives in Jurf Al Sakhar, a village next to Karagol. He said he had heard rumors that the soldiers were being held in Jurf Al Sakhar.
Mr. Nasir said the Americans were threatening to hold the men they had detained unless the two soldiers were turned over. There was no way to independently verify Mr. Nasir's report.
The American military in Iraq goes to extraordinary lengths to keep its men out of enemy hands. Soldiers never travel alone, nor do individual vehicles; it is not clear whether leaving the lone Humvee behind defied engagement guidelines.
"Make no mistake: we never stop looking for our service members until their status is definitively determined," General Caldwell said.
The apparent capture of the two Americans raises the specter of their public exploitation at the hands of insurgents. Other Americans, including civilian contractors, have been videotaped while they were mistreated, tortured or killed.
The last American soldier known to have been taken prisoner was Specialist Keith Maupin, who was captured by insurgents during an ambush of his convoy in April 2004 near Falluja, west of Baghdad. The Arabic news network Al Jazeera broadcast a videotape that purported to show Specialist Maupin being shot from behind. But the victim's face was not shown in the tape, and the American military has not confirmed his death.
The area around Yusufiya, where the two soldiers disappeared, has been the scene of heavy fighting between American troops — many of them Special Operations commandos — and insurgents believed to be connected to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. That group's founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American airstrike last week, and the American military said that information about his network had been found in safe houses in and around Yusufiya.
In May, a huge gun battle unfolded when American Special Operations commandos stormed a suspected insurgent safe house in Yusufiya. The Americans said they had killed 25 insurgents and had also lost two airmen when insurgents shot down their MH-47E Night Stalker transport, a sophisticated variant of the Chinook helicopter that is used in Special Operations missions.
In interviews conducted earlier this year, Iraqi insurgent leaders told The New York Times that Karagol, the village near where the two Americans appear to have been captured, was under the control of Al Qaeda.
The search for the Americans came on a day of widespread violence across the capital, with most of the attacks apparently carried out by insurgents. There were seven attacks in all: one suicide bombing, a mortar attack, three car bombings and the explosions of a bomb placed under a pushcart and a bomb placed inside a minibus. Thirty-eight Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
The attacks broke a spell of relative calm in the capital after the beginning on Wednesday of a citywide security crackdown by American soldiers and Iraqi security forces in the aftermath of Mr. Zarqawi's death.
The pushcart bomb exploded in the Haraj market, near the Tigris River in central Baghdad. The bomb went off in the middle of a line of pushcarts, which impoverished Iraqis use to hawk mainly secondhand clothing. The explosion, which killed 5 civilians and wounded 25, scattered human bodies, broken carts and burned clothing up and down the street and against the shop windows that line the street.
On many days, the violence here seems to unfold without pattern or reason. It struck the local Iraqis who gathered at the Haraj market as senseless, too.
"Only the poor people work here," said Tariq Abd Zein, 35, who sells secondhand shoes. "I don't understand the meaning of bombing this market."
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/91874
Jurf Al Sakhar 5-15-2005 Police on Saturday found three beheaded corpses in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad, police said. Hospital officials said the victims had been tortured. Insurgents have shot or beheaded scores of Iraqis they suspect of working with American forces.
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:sKEp9nO4M-cJ:www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp%3Fpage%3Dstory_15-5-2005_pg7_1+Jurf+Al+Sakhar&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=21
4/29/06 Iraq Jurf al-SakharIslamic radicals abduct a policeman and his brother, then dump their bodies by their house two hours later.
Today (October 24, 2005) a particularly heinous crime has been committed. I am referring to the slaying of building laborers slain near the accursed village of Jurf Al Sakhar, south of Baghdad. 12 men mostly belonging to same two families were slain for no reason other than pure sectarian and racist hate. These poor laborers were slain as they were toiling for their daily bread. This abominable village mentioned above has been the source of many of such acts and is inhabited by certain well known murderous and callous Sunni tribes. These are thieves and criminals by tradition and a place from which many of the actual thugs and torturers of Saddam torture chambers used to be recruited.
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:TnyngbRsB5MJ:messopotamian.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_messopotamian_archive.html+Jurf+Al+Sakhar&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=58
Qaeda-linked group says abducted US soldiers in Iraq
Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:16am ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - A key Iraqi militant body linked to al Qaeda said on Monday it had abducted two American soldiers near Yusufiya, in the same region where the U.S. military reported two of its men went missing last week.
"Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahideen Shura Council kidnapped two American soldiers near Yusufiya," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
"We will provide you with more details about the incident in the next coming days."
U.S. and Iraqi forces are searching for two U.S. soldiers who went missing on Friday after an attack on a checkpoint near Yusufiya south of Baghdad that killed another soldier.
Divers searched the Euphrates River and U.S. aircraft combed the surrounding area near Yusufiya, an al Qaeda stronghold south of Baghdad.
"The American army, using different kinds of machines and armor, raided the area where the incident took place but the army of 'the world's strongest country' returned without success, humiliated," said the statement which was posted on a Web site often used by Islamist militants.
The statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, said the event showed "the weakness of U.S. intelligence".
The posting did not provide any proof of the kidnapping. Iraqi militant groups have often posted pictures of identification cards of hostages or issued video tapes of them.
The Council, an umbrella body composed of al Qaeda in Iraq and some other Sunni Islamist militant groups, has pledged to continue a holy war against U.S.-led forces despite the killing of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has killed a number of foreign hostages, some by beheading.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-19T131649Z_01_L19804816_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-QAEDA-USA.xml
U.S. Releases Names of Two Soldiers Missing in Iraq (Update2)
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. military released the names of two soldiers missing in Iraq since a checkpoint they were manning came under attack on June 16. A third soldier was killed in the assault.
A group allied with al-Qaeda today said it kidnapped the soldiers, according to a statement on an Islamist Web site, Sky News reported.
A search is under way for Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker, 25, the Department of Defense said in a statement e-mailed late yesterday. Specialist David J. Babineau, 25, was killed, the military said. The search began within minutes of the attack, after communications with the checkpoint ended, Major General William Caldwell said yesterday.
``We're just simply trying to find them, and we're hoping that they're alive,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday on ``Fox News Sunday.''
The missing soldiers were part of a unit checking vehicles at a canal crossing near the Euphrates River, in the vicinity of Yusifyah south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Coalition soldiers nearby reported hearing an explosion and small-arms fire at about 7:55 p.m., Caldwell said.
`A Hotbed'
The region ``has been a hotbed for activities of the insurgents to launch attacks into Baghdad,'' Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' yesterday. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who died from injuries after a June 7 air strike near Baghdad, operated in the area, Zebari said.
Iraqis in the area said they saw two soldiers being led by insurgents to a pair of cars after a gun battle, the New York Times reported, citing telephone interviews.
More than 8,000 U.S. military and Iraqi Army and police personnel are conducting an ``intensive search operation to determine the status of these soldiers,'' Caldwell said in a separate e-mailed statement. During the search, seven U.S. service members were wounded in action, three members of ``anti- Iraqi'' forces were killed and 34 detainees were taken into custody, according to the statement.
Diving teams have been searching the canals and river, Caldwell said. Sixty-three tips were received, he said.
``We are using all available assets -- coalition and Iraqi, ground, air and water -- to locate and determine the duty status of our soldiers,'' Caldwell said.
Fort Campbell
All three soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), from Fort Campbell, according to the statement.
``We hope they will be found and join their units safely, but these incidents happen,'' Zebari said. ``It's a state of conflict.''
Military officials say they also are continuing to search for Sergeant Keith ``Matt'' Maupin, who was captured in April 2004. Although insurgents later released a video that purported to show Maupin being shot to death, U.S. officials say the video wasn't conclusive.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net;
Greg Ahlstrand in Hong Kong at gahlstrand@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aolc3WS1j.tc&refer=top_world_news
Oregon Soldier Missing In Iraq, Reports Of Kidnapping
Group Claims Responsibility
MADRAS, Ore. -- An Oregon soldier is missing in Iraq.
The U.S. Department of Defense says three soldiers were manning a checkpoint Friday in Baghdad when they come under enemy small arms fire.
Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack.
Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas, are missing. All three were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
An Iraqi farmer reported seeing three U.S. vehicles come under fire, two chasing after the assailants. He said gunmen attacked the third vehicle, killing the driver and taking two soldiers captive.
An umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a Web statement that it had kidnapped the two U.S. soldiers.
The reports have not been confirmed.
The White House has promised to do everything it can to find the soldiers.
http://www.koin.com/news.asp?RECORD_KEY%5Bnews%5D=ID&ID%5Bnews%5D=4680
Group Claims It Kidnapped U.S. Soldiers
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An al-Qaida-linked group claimed Monday that it had kidnapped two American soldiers reported missing south of Baghdad, where 8,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops were conducting a massive search.
The umbrella group, called the Mujahedeen Shura Council, said it was holding the two privates _ one from Texas and the other from Oregon _ as well as four Russian diplomats kidnapped June 3 in Baghdad. It also claimed to have killed a fifth Russian.
The message, which could not be authenticated, appeared on an Islamic Web site known for publishing messages from insurgent groups in Iraq. U.S. officials have said they were trying to confirm whether the two soldiers, who disappeared Friday evening following an insurgent attack that also killed a U.S. soldier, were kidnapped.
During the search for the missing Americans, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell also said the military killed three suspected insurgents and detained 34 others in fighting that wounded seven U.S. servicemen.
The Web posting said: "Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahedeen Shura Council kidnapped the two American soldiers near Youssifiya." It did not identify the soldiers.
The Defense Department identified the missing men as Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., and the dead soldier as Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Gunmen kidnapped the four Russian diplomats near their embassy in Baghdad's Mansour district after firing on their car and killing an embassy employee.
"God has enabled the lions of monotheism to arrest four Russian diplomats in Iraq and kill the fifth," said a statement from the group on the same Web site.
It condemned Russian actions in Chechnya and criticized its presence in Baghdad, saying: "The Russian government sends its diplomats to Iraq to support the crusaders' project, led by America, and to provide international backing and legitimacy to the exhausted Iraqi government."
The Mujahedeen Shura Council is a grouping of several insurgent forces, including al-Qaida in Iraq. Former insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi helped create the council in January, apparently to give an Iraqi face to his movement, made up mainly of foreign fighters.
In the posting, the council taunted U.S. forces for failing to find the Americans.
"The events reconfirm the weakness of the alleged American intelligence and its going astray in Iraq," the statement said.
"The American military has launched a campaign of raids using armor and equipment, in the region around the incident, but the army of 'the strongest nation in the world' retreated in defeat and disgrace," it said.
Fighter jets, helicopters, unmanned drones, boats and dive teams are being used to find the two men, Caldwell said. He did not comment on whether they had been seized by insurgents, saying only that they were listed as "duty status and whereabouts unknown."
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the soldiers appeared to have been taken prisoner. "Hopefully, they will be found and released as soon as possible," he told CNN on Sunday.
Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer who said he witnessed the abduction, told The Associated Press the two soldiers had been captured by seven masked, heavily armed gunmen during the attack near Youssifiya, about 12 miles south of Baghdad. The town is in the "Triangle of Death," a predominantly Sunni region where ambushes are frequent.
Despite the presence of more than 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, abductions of American service members have been rare.
Sgt. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, was captured April 9, 2004, when his fuel convoy was ambushed. A videotape shown on Al-Jazeera TV purported to show a captive U.S. soldier shot, but the Army ruled it was inconclusive whether it was Maupin.
On March 23, 2003, in the opening days of the war, a maintenance convoy was ambushed, and 11 U.S. troops were killed and six were captured, including Pvt. Jessica Lynch and Spc. Shoshana Johnson. Lynch was rescued April 1, 2003; the others were rescued April 13, 2003.
Menchaca's relatives said they were hoping for his safe return.
"I was 95 percent sure he was one of them," Menchaca's brother, Julio Cesar Vasquez, of Houston, told AP late Sunday. "I already had an idea because he was at a checkpoint."
Caldwell said seven other U.S. service members had been wounded during the search. He said more than 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops were taking part.
"While searching for our soldiers, we have engaged in a number of significant actions against the anti-Iraqi forces," he said, adding that three insurgents had been killed and 34 taken into custody.
Insurgents also continued to defy a security crackdown in Baghdad, although violence appeared to have ebbed somewhat after several bloody attacks in recent days.
A parked car bomb struck an Iraqi army convoy near a busy Baghdad square Monday, killing five people, including four Iraqi soldiers, and wounding nine passers-by, Lt. Ahmed Muhammad Ali said. A policeman also was gunned down in western Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi troops also pushed into an eastern section of the western insurgent stronghold of Ramadi in a campaign to gradually bolster their presence in city neighborhoods that for months have largely been under insurgent control.
A U.S. gunship fired on suspected insurgents early in the operation, U.S. commanders said. Six men were thought to have been killed, and sporadic exchanges of gunfire echoed throughout the neighborhood in the morning. No U.S. casualties were initially reported.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, said Iraqi forces will take over security next month in a southern province where Japanese troops are based.
The decision, announced after al-Maliki met with Japan's ambassador, does not necessarily mean that any U.S.-led coalition forces will be withdrawn from Muthana province.
Al-Maliki has said his national unity government plans to gradually take over security for all of Iraq's 18 provinces within the next 18 months.
In another development, 500 detainees were released from U.S.-run detention centers in Iraq, the Justice Ministry said, part of al-Maliki's plan to release 2,500 prisoners to promote national reconciliation.
The U.S. military also said the Central Criminal Court of Iraq has sentenced 29 insurgents to up to 15 years in prison for offenses ranging from possessing illegal weapons to membership in armed groups. Five were foreigners, including an Iranian who received six years in prison after he was caught entering the country illegally.
The court has tried 1,229 suspected insurgents and convicted 1,066, it said.
In other violence Monday:
_ A former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was gunned down as he was going to work in downtown Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad.
_ Gunmen killed a police colonel heading to work near Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
_ Gunmen trying to kill a former army major in the northern city of Mosul killed a civilian and wounded their target.
_ A sniper killed an Iraqi soldier 25 miles west of Baghdad.
_ Roadside bombs in Fallujah and Hillah killed four civilians.
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Kim Gamel in Baghdad, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Egypt, and Matt Joyce in Dallas contributed to this report.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2006/06/19/ap/headlines/d8ibd5j81.txt
Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, is missing in Iraq, according to the U.S. Army.
Al Qaeda-linked group claims it kidnapped 2 U.S. soldiers
Monday, June 19, 2006; Posted: 1:29 p.m. EDT (17:29 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An al Qaeda-affiliated group on Monday claimed it kidnapped two U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad, although the captives were not named.
The group -- Mujahedeen Shura Council -- made the unverified claim in a statement posted on a Web site. It did not post images or video of the soldiers as it has in the past.
The statement said, "the strongest army in the world is turned around, ashamed of their failure [to find the soldiers] and we will give you more information on the incident in the following days."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/19/soldiers.missing/index.html
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