Baghdad – The U.S. military investigation into the ambush near Baghdad which has left five dead and three U.S. soldiers missing includes the question of why there were apparently only two vehicles in what is known to be a dangerous area, U.S. officials here say.
Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi Army interpreter were killed in the huge explosion which left the two Humvees in flames before dawn on Saturday. Three other U.S. soldiers, possibly wounded, are missing, prompting an ongoing search by thousands of troops. U.S. Troops on operations in the area south of Baghdad normally travel in convoys of at least three Humvees for security reasons.
Some U.S. military operations were suspended on Sunday as troops were diverted to the search for the missing soldiers.
U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said about 4,000 troops on the ground and in the air were searching the area near Mahmudiya, surrounded by dense palm groves. The area is known as an al-Qaeda stronghold.
An al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State in Iraq, claims it is holding the missing soldiers but hasn’t offered proof.
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2761/Arraf_Reports_Anomaly_Factor_in_Kidnapping
Four thousand US soldiers scoured insurgent territory in central Iraq on Sunday for three comrades, while al-Qaeda boasted it had captured the missing troops in a deadly pre-dawn ambush.
Backed by jets and helicopters, the US force threw up checkpoints among palm groves and farmsteads in rural areas south of the Iraqi capital, one day after the attack killed four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter.
Meanwhile, insurgent bombers carried out two more deadly assaults, killing at least 50 people in a suicide attack on administrative offices in a northern town and 10 more as they spread carnage in a crowded Baghdad market.
“In the United States military we have a thing called the soldier’s creed, and it says ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade’,” US spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad. “We believe in this deeply and therefore will make every effort available to find the three missing soldiers.”
A coalition of militant groups led by al-Qaeda in Iraq posted a statement on the internet claiming the attack on the soldiers.
The self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq said its men clashed “with a crusader patrol in the Mahmudiyah area in the south of Baghdad province, leading to the killing and capture of a number of them”.
The eight-strong patrol was attacked on Saturday, 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Mahmudiyah, a restive town just south of the capital, leaving behind five bodies in a state that initially made them difficult to identify.
Caldwell said all but one of the dead had been identified, and the Iraqi translator was among those killed, leaving three US soldiers still missing in an area known for its insurgent kidnap gangs.
Moad al-Amiri, the mayor of Mahmudiyah, told AFP a large force of US ground troops backed by helicopters and low-flying jets had descended on Shwaisha, 20 km west of his town.
“They’ve surrounded all this area and they’ve captured 43 suspects and there’s still an operation going on,” he said. “The Iraqi army is not taking part in the operation, just the Americans.”
Amiri - citing his police chief - said a second raid was also under way in Haswa, south of Mahmudiyah, again involving US troops and helicopters. “There were several arrests there too,” he added.
US military spokesmen could not confirm this, but Caldwell said the military would mobilise “every asset” to find the missing soldiers, whose duty status is listed as “whereabouts unknown”.
Mahmudiyah lies in an area of farmland and orchards known as a Sunni insurgent stronghold. After the US-led invasion of March 2003 the region was nicknamed the Triangle of Death.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-hunts-for-missing-soldiers/2007/05/14/1178995025672.html