06-20-2006, 11h02 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP)
The bodies of two US soldiers who went missing south of Baghdad were found, as the military said it killed 15 insurgents but Iraqi police and a rights activist claimed they were ordinary poultry farm workers.
The bodies of the two soldiers, Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Thomas L. Tucker, 25, were found in a brutally "tortured" condition, General Abdul Aziz Mohammed of the Iraqi defense ministry said.
"The two US soldiers were found in the Yusifiyah area near the power station and unfortunately their bodies show that they had been tortured and then killed viciously," the general told a news conference.
The soldiers went missing Friday night after they came under attack at a traffic control point near Yusifiyah, along the Euphrates river. One soldier was also killed in the attack.
The Mujahedeen Shura (consultative) Council, a coalition of insurgent groups led by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed Monday it had abducted the two soldiers.
The US military had launched a massive hunt for Menchaca and Tucker with nearly 8,000 troops searching for them by land, water and air. Seven US troops were wounded in action during the search operations.
The agricultural area of Yusifiyah, criss-crossed by a maze of canals and lush fields, is a well-known insurgent stronghold.
The latest fatalities brought the US military death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,502, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
Meanwhile, the US military said it killed 15 "terrorists" during overnight raids in farmland near the restive city of Baquba, which lies northeast of the capital.
"Coalition forces killed 15 terrorists and detained three other suspects during simultaneous raids north of Baquba," the military said in a statement.
It said US troops came under small arms fire from the rooftop of a house when they arrived at their target.
"The ground force returned fire, killing nine armed terrorists on the rooftop, and an additional two armed terrorists who were identified firing on coalition forces from next to the building, were killed by coalition aircraft supporting fire," it said.
The military said that a helicopter providing air backup to the troops hit a power line forcing it to make an emergency landing, but that no one on board was hurt.
"Three armed suspects were then killed by another coalition aircraft as they attempted to attack the downed aircraft," it said, adding that another "terrorist" was killed by a US sniper in a separate clash.
But Iraqi police, relatives of those killed and a human rights organisation in Baquba gave a conflicting version of the incident.
They said the victims were all poultry farm workers who had been sleeping in the fields of Bushaheen village in an area known as Al-Salam (peace), some 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Baghdad, when US troops raided the area.
Their claim was backed up by Hadi al-Azzawi from a human rights organisation in Baquba, while the main hospital in the city said it had received 13 bodies.
A similar incident occurred on June 12 when the military said it killed seven Al-Qaeda-linked operatives in the village of Hashmiyat in an air strike after US soldiers patrolling the area came under fire.
But witnesses said the incident was triggered when a guard in the village mistook US soldiers in the distance for gangs and began firing towards them. Two of the dead were children.
The US military also said it detained a senior Al-Qaeda in Iraq network member and three other suspected "terrorists" during coordinated raids southwest of Baquba on Monday.
The main suspect was reportedly a senior Al-Qaeda cell leader throughout central Iraq.
Meanwhile, US military spokesman Major William Wilhoite said there was enough evidence to charge three soldiers accused of murdering three male Iraqi detainees last month near Muthana Chemical Complex in Salaheddin province.
The soldiers are currently held in pre-trial confinement awaiting a hearing.
Staff Sergeant Raymond L. Girouard, Specialist William B. Hunsaker and Private First Class Corey Clagett are accused of killing the detainees and of covering up their crime by saying they were shot dead as they tried to escape.
The case is the latest in a series involving allegations that US troops killed Iraqi civilians.
The most serious to date are claims that US marines went on a rampage at Haditha in western Iraq on November 19, killing 24 civilians including 10 women and children after a marine was killed by a roadside bomb.
Also on Tuesday, Japan ordered a pullback of troops from the southern Muthanna province, ending its first military mission since World War II to a country where fighting is under way.
The mission, which has helped reconstruct the relatively peaceful area around the southern city of Samawa since January 2004, is the first of its kind since Japan was forced by the United States to renounce war after World War II.
The troops have suffered no casualties and never even fired their state-of-the-art weapons.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that Iraqi forces would take over responsibility for Muthanna province.
At least eight people were killed in rebel attacks and bombings across Iraq on Tuesday, including five in Baghdad where a massive security crackdown was on in its seventh day.
Did you notice the scare quotes around the word terrorists?
They couldn't even make it past the first sentence before lobbing this little tidbit out.
Disgusting.