Al Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Kidnapping of GIs
Fox News report
BAGHDAD, Iraq — An umbrella group that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed in a Web statement Monday that it had kidnapped two U.S. soldiers reported missing south of Baghdad.
There was no immediate confirmation that the statement was credible, although it appeared on a Web site often used by Al Qaeda-linked groups. U.S. officials have said they were trying to confirm whether the missing soldiers were kidnapped.
“Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahedeen Shura Council kidnapped the two American soldiers near Youssifiya,” the group said in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site.
The Web site did not name the soldiers.
The U.S. military said Monday that seven American troops have been wounded, three insurgents have been killed and 34 detained during an intensive search for two soldiers.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles and dive teams had been deployed to find the two men. The men went missing Friday during an attack on their checkpoint in the volatile Sunni area south of Baghdad that left one of their comrades dead.
“We have surged intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and employed planes, boats, helicopters and UAVs to ensure the most thorough search possible on the ground, in the air and in the water,” Caldwell said in a statement issued Monday.
He did not comment on reports that the two men had been seized by insurgents, saying only that they were listed as “duty status and whereabouts unknown.” He said seven other U.S. service members had been wounded in action during the search efforts that began Friday night.
The Defense Department identified the missing men:
Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. It said Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. The three were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Caldwell said more than 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops were participating in the search.
“While searching for our soldiers, we have engaged in a number of significant actions against the anti-Iraqi forces,” he said, adding that three insurgents had been killed and 34 taken into custody.
He also said the military had received 63 tips and had launched 12 cordon and search operations, eight air assaults and 280 flight hours were logged.
“Approximately 12 villages have been cleared in the area, and we continue to engage local citizens for help and information leading to the whereabouts of our soldiers,” he said, without elaborating.
Caldwell also said the military was still searching for Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio, who went missing April 9, 2004.
Maupin was captured when insurgents ambushed his fuel convoy with the 724th Transportation Co. west of Baghdad.
CNN report ( just click for complete article, thank you)
An al Qaeda-affiliated group on Monday claimed it kidnapped two U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad, although the captives were not named.
The group — Mujahedeen Shura Council — made the unverified claim in a statement posted on a Web site. It did not post images or video of the soldiers as it has in the past.
The statement said, “the strongest army in the world is turned around, ashamed of their failure to find the soldiers and we will give you more information on the incident in the following days.”
Update:…just click for complete article, thank you
Missing US troops in area where many live in fear
BAGHDAD – Two US soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday disappeared into a lawless Qaeda stronghold where residents describe being terrorized by unknown militants.
Military helicopters and divers are combing the rural Euphrates river area south of Baghdad for the troops who went missing after an attack on their checkpoint near the town of Yusufiya killed another US soldier.
Most people in the Sunni Arab region resent the presence of the US troops. But even if they wanted to help the two soldiers, doing so could be fatal.
“We live in fear. Gunmen always go to people’s houses asking about who works for the Iraqi army or police or the Americans,” taxi driver Abdullah Jassim told Reuters by telephone.
And this is very alarming:
Many more of your soldiers gonna be killed in the days and weeks ahead. Summary of death will be as follows: we’ll cut their genitals/boobs depending on their gender, disembowel their intestines and slit their throats and then post the videos of the executions/massacres on our newssites: www.kavkazcenter.com and english.aljazeera.net.
Comment by MansurAlIraqi 06.19.06 @ 1:00 pm
Wild Thing’s comment….
ENOUGH! Damn, damn, damn! The calls for withdraw (cut and run) embolden are enemy and are the cause of such attacks. Every call for withdrawl every negative statement about the effort spills the blood of good American Servicemen and women.
Prayers for these men and for all our troops. For their families and loved ones.
As for these vile pieces of flesh that have done this you are too evil even to be sent to hell. There will be a day soon when you will feel the rath of America on you and I pray it will be soon, very soon.
UPDATE:
I am so sorry to have this update. My sympathies to the families and other loved ones of these fine soldiers. They are true Americans, and they gave their all.
Bodies of Pvt. Kristian Menchaca and Pvt. Thomas Tucker Reportedly Found
Pvt. Tucker’s family released a recording of his last phone call home:
“Be proud of me Mom, I’m defending my country. Tell sis and my nephews hello for me, I’m OK, I’m on my way.”
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed said:
the bodies were found on a street near a power plant in the town of Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Muhammed-Jassim, head of operations at Iraqi Ministry of Defense said the soldiers had been “barbarically” killed and that there were traces of torture on their bodies. He offered no further details.
Wild Thing’s comment……
To all you lefties, Murtha, Pelosi, etc. in government, and the rest of you anti-war traitors to America and to our military STFU! You are part of the reason these soliders are dead, YOU are working hand in hand with the enemy.
You have these soldiers blood on YOUR hands, you damn well better believe it.
Where are you now? Where are you callking your 15 minutes of fame press conferences to say how sorry you that we lost 2 soldiers lives? NO you are too busy bashing the military and the war against Islam!
No quarter, no mercy, whatever numbers is necessary to flush this pus from the face of the earth is acceptable, and however we do it is okay. Pick a number, add a couple dozen zeroes, and it’s a start. Bring back napalm and the flame thrower if necessary. We’ll find, ultimately, that Marquis of Queensbury Rules in this war will not succeed, and we’ll need to deter these people in other ways.
MansurAlIraq should be the first to find out what this means.
Maddening, and scary. GIs should never be in small enough numbers to allow this to happen.
Now we put every effort forward to find these two. This is where torture of detainees comes in. Get info and act on it.
Let’s hope and pray for these two.
Exactly, TomR.
Why the hell were there only three troops at this checkpoint, in an area known as the Triangle of Death? Somebody ought to pay for this, big time.
Second, when I read the kind of thing MansurAlIraq has written it reminds me of this:
Wherever you find war, persecution, starvation, genocide, theft and social nightmares, Muslims are one of the contestants and usually the aggressors. No longer is it possible to distinguish between moderates and the rest, nor is it practical to assume Islam is a religion of peace. That’s bullshit and everyone knows it.
Combine Islam with the cruelty instinctive to Arab culture, and you have the psychopathic pig whores like MansurAlIraq…who are probably Sunnis, and being so, one begins to understand the complaints of the Shi’a. The Shi’a are regarded as something lower than Jews, almost simian, by the Sunni. Killing Zarqawi deprived the coward Sunnis of their king, their murderous alter ego.
We’ve killed an estimated 45,000 of these blood-guzzling sons of pig whores, and the number can’t go high enough to suit me. This will end with the deaths of enough of them to deter the rest, whatever that number is. I don’t care a whit. The price of martydom needs to be elevated to tribal extinction. Period.
For all the depravities of European fascism, it didn’t reach the depths discovered by Muslims. The West will not fail in this war. If it takes fifty years, the end of Islam as we know it is the only goal. They either change or cease to exist.
There can be only one response:
You have two hours within which to release all of our Troops unharmed, and that includes Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, or we will nuke Mecca.
No negotiations.
Rhod I agree, whatever it takes, no quarter, no mercy.
Tom I agree the time is going fast too, it happened last Friday. Every day that goes by is even more worrisome.
Ditto Rhod & TomR
CBS News Reports Missing Soildiers Found Murdered
CBS News is reporting that the two US soldiers who were abducted from a checkpoint have been found murdered. Iraqi officials are reporting the two bodies were found in the street in Baghdad near the town where they were abducted. The military has yet…
Nuke Mecca anyway, maybe now the the leaders will look back at Muqtada al-Sadr and wish they’d taken him out in the beginning. Sunni or Shiite there are no differences in the fundamental makeup of the two groups, the cult of death applies equally. Islam is an ideology being masked as being in Gods name to absolve them of guilt when they enact their butchery on fellow humans to enforce their fascist will.
Jack that Muqtada al-Sadr is horrible. Thanks for your comment.
As I post this the two were found dead,what a
bunch of crap!!!The Army is going to charge 3
more soldiers with Murder,are you kidding me!!!
This whole deal is one big cluster F$$k!!! The
Brass running this show are enough to make me
have a stroke,what in hell would Chesty Puller
and General Harlen “Howlin Mad”Smith say if they
were alive today and Patton would slap the crap
out of most of these candy ass comanders…We
Can’t get the job done by being P/C, My self I
would deep nuke the oil fields ,Poison the oil
for the next 1000 life times,let the SOBs eat
sand or starve…
This cancer needs to be cut, painfully, from the earth. There is something Satanic in Islam, some corrupting and wicked potentials that are incapable of reform. The only solution is death to its adherents, humiliation of its leaders and narrative, and permanent rejection and insult of the civilized world. With it must go the compromising and complicit weaknesses of Western liberalism.
At times I had sympathy for the Viet Cong, and grudging respect for them and the NVA, even with their policy of brutality. But Jihadis are a malignant life form existing outside the realm of normal human ethics, somewhere justified and defended by Islamic and Arab thought. It’s a self-explanation as to why Muslim culture is corrupt, degraded and contemptible wherever it exists, and without oil wealth would be even more odious, despicable and dead at the center.
Islam is the enemy. Not Islamism, not Islamofascism, not Persian expansionism or corrupt Sheikdoms. Until it proves itself otherwise, we must prepare for total war against them everywhere.
Here goes the g–damn cowardly, ticket punching brass charging 3 GIs with murder, while 3 other GIs are killed by real murderers. How many full Colonels or Generals have been casualties in this war? But I bet some are getting Purple Hearts. There are some great officers, but there are too many of the politicians among the vastly oversized Officer Corps. Every swinging member of the Officer Corps should have to pull some duty guarding intersections and breaking down doors like the troops do.
Tincan Sailor I agree the military has got to stop listening to the pc people. Do what they do best and the hell with someones opinion in the MSM and leftie politicians.
Rhod you said it, there is something Satanic about it.
Tom it is like everything is crazy or something. Nothing is how it should be.