US troops find ID cards of missing soldiers in Iraq
Reuters
BAGHDAD, June 16 (Reuters) - U.S. troops found the identity cards of two U.S. soldiers missing for nearly a month in a raid on an al Qaeda safe house north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.
The raid took place on June 9, the military said. The cards belonged to Specialist Alex Jimenez and Private Bryon Fouty. Jimenez and Fouty were abducted along with a third soldier, whose body has since been found, after an attack on their patrol south of Baghdad on May 12.
The U.S. military has launched a massive hunt to find the two missing soldiers. Al Qaeda has said it killed all three.
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Missing soldiers ID cards found in al-Qaida safe house near Samarra
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD: The identification cards of two soldiers missing since an attack on their unit May 12 were found in what the American military called an al-Qaida in Iraq safe house north of Baghdad, U.S. authorities reported Saturday.
The military statement said the ID cards of Spec. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan, were discovered along with computers, video production equipment, rifles and ammunition at the otherwise empty house near Samarra, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
They were snatched in a raid on their 10th Mountain Division unit more than a month ago near Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad.
The body of a third soldier who was taken in the raid, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, California, was found floating Euphrates last month.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a front group for al-Qaida, claimed in a video tape posted on the Internet this month that all three missing soldiers were killed and buried.
The militants showed images of the military IDs Jimenez and Fouty but offered no proof that they were dead.
Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed in the daring ambush on the unit.
At least two U.S. soldiers were killed in the intense and massive search for the missing men in the area around Youssifiyah.
The military said U.S. forces of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment were fired on from a tree line near the suspected safe house and two soldiers were wounded. The ground forces called in air cover in taking the house.