Posted on 06/20/2006 6:26:39 AM PDT by areafiftyone
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi military official said Tuesday that the bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers showed signs of torture, and that men appeared to have been killed "in a barbaric way." Also, the umbrella group for Iraqi insurgents claimed responsibility for the soldiers' deaths.
"We give the good news ... to the Islamic nation that we have carried God's verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders," said a statement in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which groups five insurgent organizations including al-Qaida in Iraq.
At a news briefing, U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell declined to identify the two men until their families could be notified.
Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., disappeared after an insurgent attack Friday at a checkpoint by a Euphrates River canal south of Baghdad. Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed.
The checkpoint was in the Sunni Arab region known as the "Triangle of Death" because of frequent ambushes there of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi troops.
The three men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
"The news is going to be heartbreaking for my family," Menchaca's uncle, Ken MacKenzie, told NBC's "Today" show.
He said the United States should have paid a ransom for the two soldiers from money seized from Saddam Hussein.
"I think the U.S. was too slow to react to this," MacKenzie said. "Because the U.S. did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid with his life."
The director of the Iraqi defense military's operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the two bodies were found on a street near the town Youssifiyah, close to the scene of the attack. The U.S. military could not confirm that account.
Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said details of what happened to the two missing soldiers and about the bodies found would be released later Tuesday after the families of the soldiers were informed.
"Until we know the families have been both briefed and have been fully informed ... it would be inappropriate," he said.
A search involving more than 8,000 Iraqi and American troops turned up nothing over the weekend, but troops searching for the soldiers killed three suspected insurgents and detained 34 in fighting that also left seven U.S. servicemen wounded, Caldwell said.
A farmer claiming to have witnessed the attack told The Associated Press on Sunday that insurgents swarmed the checkpoint, killing the driver of a Humvee before taking two of his comrades captive.
Ahmed Khalaf Falah said three Humvees were manning a checkpoint when they came under fire from many directions. Two Humvees went after the assailants but the third was ambushed before it could move.
He said seven masked gunmen, one carrying a heavy machine gun, killed the driver of the third vehicle and took the two other U.S. soldiers captive. His account could not be verified independently.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari also said the soldiers appeared to have been taken prisoner by insurgents.
The military said Saturday that soldiers at a nearby checkpoint heard small-arms fire and explosions during the attack at 7:15 p.m. Friday, and a quick-reaction force reached the scene within 15 minutes. The force found one soldier dead but no signs of the other two.
You know I'm usually not for torture and would prefer to see a clean kill but these islamics deserve to be tortured and re-tortured before killing them. I am sick of all of them.
Me too.
I read on a milblog a while back a testimonial from a marine during the final battle to clear Falluja that there was an understood fact that no marine/soldier would allow themselves to be taken alive considering what the "insurgents" were doing to their captives...and the field day the media would have if the terrorists held US pow's and brandished them on the internet...etc...it was a very sober account of how every US military person in a combat zone would fight to the death...because the US is not fighting any type of civilized adversary...we're fighting rabid, cracked up, dogs in Iraq and Afgahnistan and around the world.
I guess MacKenzie forgot about the 8,000 U.S. Soldiers looking for his son....
heard this a.m. that they were beheaded....
GRRRRRRRR!!!!! I am so full of anger right now and saddness I don't know whether to cry or scream!
Deepest sympathy to the families of these brave men.
Now I am waiting for all the human rights organizations and so-called proponents of civil liberties to come forward blasting the killers. Like that will happen. Instead I'm sure all we'll hear is silence.
Now this uncle of one of the guys sounds like he is blaming the US more than the slime who did the killing. He ought to get together with Sheehan, and Ann Coulter's nemeses, the 9/11/01 widows for Kerry.
Horrible but the rag-heads made a big mistake - there will be no more surrenders of any sort - many more rag-heads will die because of this "message".
I'm sorry the young man's uncle feels the need to besmirch his service by denigrating the military. From what I read, the Coalition forces went searching immediately for these young men.
I'm praying for the souls of these fine young men and for their families who are mourning their loss.
By møøslimbs? Inconceivable!
KILL ALL THE BASTARDS!.......................EVERY GD ONE OF 'EM!..........
>>>My hatred for these bastards is beyond words.
I don't think you're alone there, my friend.
I agree, and there's only one thing you can do with a mad dog...you put it down! No mercy for these animals.
I'm sure the beheading video will appear shortly on Al Jazeera.
Only if the terrorists promised NOT to use the money to kill other people.....
I heard John Dean already this AM spouting off on this. Do these people, ie fellow Americans, realize that if we were united, this war would come to a fast resolution.
Dean's remarks today cross the line. The basta*rd.
And that's a good thing.
God is just. And his justice does not sleep forever. The animals who did this will be put-down like rabid dogs before long.
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