Posted on 06/19/2006 5:40:20 AM PDT by areafiftyone
A terrorist group linked to al Qaeda says it has kidnapped two US soldiers in Iraq.
In a statement posted on the internet, it said the pair were snatched near Yusufiya.
American and Iraqi forces have been searching for two soldiers who went missing after an attack on a checkpoint near Yusufiya on Friday.
One solider was killed in the attack.
More follows ...
It's no good. Information on ongoing military operations will not be given out over FR. Check Reuters.
as much as I hate to say it....under the current aggressive conditions the muj are under, i suspect these 2 fine young men will be kept alive just long enough for their captors to aquire a video camera.....
prayers for these men~~~~~~~
I can't help but wonder if all three weren't killed and they've made off with two bodies for propaganda purposes.
It's a little unusual not to have some sort of proof of abduction this late in the game following an abduction.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but I've been wondering: How did our soldiers let themselves get taken? Another dumb question: Don't they have guns? I'm just having a hard time imagining a scenario where our soldiers would not be able to fight back or incur injury or death on the perps who were trying to kidnap them.
I've been praying nonstop for our brave soldiers.
Fortunately, our new cable provider doesn't include MSNBC in their expanded basic package, so I will miss that spectacle.
Prayers up!
These 2 men have been on mind all weekend.
I was hoping we'd find them by now.
I am truly hoping that no videos are released and these men are rescued today. I cannot imagine what they & their families are going through right now. I wonder if the families have even been notified.
Prayers for your soldiers.
God knows they won't have panties put on their heads, but something much worse.
God, please protect them from these animals.
a possibility i had not considered..... i was never able to understand them being taken either.... so....either they were wounded or as you said KIA.... as far as the video.....dead or alive....the muj are laying low/on the run right now.....taking video pics is hard to do when there are 10,000 angry soldiers/Marines crawling up your a$$
They would have guns yes. They were likely out numbered which brings of the matter of why only 3 men at a check point? If the location needs a check point then it needs enough manpower to enforce it. City cops have better check point policy. Not a reflection on these men doing their job but rather their chain of command.
Prayers went up for the safe return of these two brave soldiers.
there wer approx. 10 - 12 at the check point....they came under fire and 2 groups/hummers took off in chase of the attackers.....leaving only 3 at the area when they then came under attack from a different direction......therein lies the mistake....if one was made.... (arm chair squad leader here.....no disrespect meant...they were there....i wasn't....nor do i have their training)
what this also shows is the insurgents are beginning to employ battlefield tactics as opposed to ied attacks only......which is good for us.......when we can get a fix on them we kill them at a rate of about a 100 - 1
Big time prayers. Heaven knows what they are enduring.
I read an interesting post on another thread by somebody who obviously knows a lot more than I do, and he pointed out that the enemy had probably been watching us for some time and had figured out that our tactic, normally, was to pursue people who attacked our patrols and leave a small contingent behind. It sounds as if the terrorists who attacked the group at the checkpoint were actually a larger group than those who did the initial diversionary attack, so I would suspect that the poster is right.
It was not a failure on the part of our soldiers, but probably a failure on the part of our strategy. If a football coach plays the same game over and over again, everybody will know how to respond. In fact, supposedly one of the reasons for American victories against the British in the Revolution is that we could adapt - but they had a strategy that they followed, and that was that. They did not adapt and furthermore left no discretion to the people on the ground.
One of the major problems, however, is that our war is essentially being run by the press. That is, every commander is thinking not about the things that will win and keep his men safe, but about what will pass muster with the press. We have a big problem here that I think no other military or war has experienced.
THANK you for pointing that out- the MSM has successfully gotten the public to assume we have 3 soldiers at checkpoints- which is nonsense.
Thanks for the info. A diversion for a grab sounds like {speculation}. I hope some gear was chipped. Kinda hard to track an enemy not in uniform and hides in the neighborhood.
God protect and our troops.
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