astralis

RIP

----

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._nm/iraq_dc_76

Soldiers missing in Iraq found dead

By Mussab Al-Khairalla 12 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers missing in
Iraq for three days have been found dead, their bodies showing signs of "barbaric" torture, an Iraqi general said on Tuesday, after an intensive hunt involving thousands of troops.

"Coalition forces have recovered what we believe are the remains of the soldiers," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said, declining to comment on how they died.

An Internet statement said the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq "slit the throats" of the two men but its authenticity seemed questionable. The same group had said in a statement on Monday to be holding the men, but Caldwell dismissed that.

"God Almighty has graced the leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir ... with the implementation of the sentence," said a statement from the Mujahideen Shura Council. Al Qaeda's former leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, died in a U.S. air strike two weeks ago.

Caldwell said a joint U.S.-Iraqi force found the bodies of Privates Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, and Kristian Menchaca, 23, on Monday night dumped at an electrical plant. The recovery of the bodies was delayed by having to defuse bombs planted nearby.

He did not make clear whether the bodies themselves or the site were booby-trapped: "There were some IEDs in that location and they did have to dismantle some stuff to get to them."

White House National Security Adviser
Stephen Hadley told reporters on Air Force One traveling with
President George W. Bush to Vienna for meeting with
European Union leaders that the bodies were being shipped home for positive identification.

"I think it's a reminder that this is a brutal enemy that does not follow any of the rules. It attacks civilians for political gain. It provokes sectarian violence and it really follows no rules of warfare," Hadley said.

Iraqi Defense Ministry official Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed told Reuters earlier that the bodies showed signs of "barbaric torture." He did not elaborate.

The U.S. military launched a massive search for the soldiers involving aircraft and 8,000 U.S troops and Iraqi security forces after vowing not to leave them "out there."

The discovery came as more bomb blasts shook Baghdad, killing nine people despite a security clampdown. The U.S. military also said troops hunting insurgents linked to al Qaeda had killed 15 gunmen in raids north of the capital.

FLEEING VEHICLE

Caldwell said a U.S. air strike on a fleeing vehicle killed a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader on Friday in the same area where the two American soldiers went missing a few hours later.

U.S. forces had been on the trail of Mansur al-Mashhadani, identified as the top al Qaeda religious leader in the country, before he was killed in the Yusufiya area just south of Baghdad.

Tucker and Menchaca went missing at dusk on Friday after an ambush at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town in an area south of Baghdad some Iraqis call the "Triangle of Death," which is an al Qaeda stronghold. Another soldier was killed in the attack.

Their deaths dealt a blow to the U.S. military after it killed Zarqawi on June 7 near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

U.S. forces hunting insurgents linked to a suspected senior al Qaeda member launched simultaneous pre-dawn raids near Baquba on Tuesday, the U.S military said.

U.S. soldiers were fired on from the roof of a house in the village of Qaduri Ali al Shahin, 13 km (8 miles) north of Baquba as the operation got under way. Troops and supporting aircraft returned fire, killing 11 gunmen.

U.S. troops said they found 10 AK-47 assault rifles and explosives in the raids, but residents said the victims were innocent employees of a nearby poultry farm.

Caldwell said no civilians had been killed in what he described as an "extremely long firefight."

U.S. forces have stepped up their hunt for al Qaeda insurgents following Zarqawi's death and the government announced a security clampdown in the capital to try to thwart the car bombings that exact a deadly daily toll on civilians.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Tuesday Japan would withdraw its 550 soldiers, engaged in reconstruction and humanitarian work in Iraq.

Iraqi and British officials said Iraqi forces could take responsibility for a second southern province soon after announcing on Monday that the British-led force in the south would hand over Muthanna province next month.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Ibon Villelabeitia, Michael Georgy, in Baghdad and Ahmed Abbas in Qaduri Ali al Shahin)

Confed999

God bless 'em. My prayers for them, their families and friends.

The work of "freedom fighters"...

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Parihaka

I wonder if the 'freedom fighters' will put the torturers on trial?

Confed999

Put them on trial for following their standard policy?

leib10

You'll never find them anyway. Either they'll be killed in a battle with coalition forces or they'll just simply melt into the background, never to be punished (on this earth anyway) for what they did. If there is a God, I hope he gives them a good "vulcanizing" in return for what they did.

__________________
"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man

Parihaka

It was a fatuous question. There have been plenty of people supporting the 'freedom fighters' who called for blood over Abu Ghraib, where's the calls for these guys to be tried by their fellow 'freedom fighters'?. Don't they expect the same rules
As for the US prosecuting these guys, they will have left DNA profiles. Iraq will have a stable democracy one day, their police, like most police forces, will do DNA profiling on criminals and like most police forces will share information. These torturers will by their nature be being convicted for crimes in the future. Who's to say their DNA profiles won't pop up on a computer 10 or 20 years from now?

smilingassassin

..and god help the scumbags who did this. Maybe we should give em Zarkmans body back, equally mutilated...

Bluesman

I wouldn't bet the ranch on that; I'm trying as hard as I can to make your statement incorrect. I'm not working alone, either.

With a few breaks...we could pay this back.

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

smilingassassin

Bluesman, You can start by taking out the new head meathead Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Make his tenure as "Al-Q leftovers" leader short and uneventfull.

I'd sure like to hear someone complain about human rights abuse by American soldiers now...they will get a peice of my mind in spades.

Bluesman

Ya think we don't have his name on the wall?

Another creep that won't die from old age.

leib10

I certainly hope you can prove me wrong, strange as that may sound.

Bluesman

Sounds just right to me; I know exactly what you mean, ole buddy.

smilingassassin

Give em holy hell!

Amled

To the family, friends and comrades of the two servicemen, my deepest condolences.
To their killers: May you burn in Hell!
Make 'em pay Blue, make 'em pay!

__________________
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin

Dreadnought

Or with a nice heavy ordanince packed inside his body before returning it to his friends say about 15 lbs of semtex Just sharin the love