Monday, June 04, 2007

Photo IDs of Missing U.S. Soldiers Posted

A Sunni insurgent group today posted video of the military identification cards of the two U.S. soldiers missing since an ambush in the Triangle of Death on May 12.
There is no indication in the video that Specialist Alex Jimenez or Private Byron Fouty are still alive.
The video is from the Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent group that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq. It included a still image of the photo IDs. Above the photos, written in Arabic, was the message, "Bush is the reason for the loss of your prisoners."

The images appear to be authentic U.S. military identification cards, a military official said in Washington.

Military officials recently had received information that video or images related to the missing soldiers might appear on the Internet and contacted their families to inform them, U.S. military sources said.
Jimenez, 25, and Fouty, 19, went missing along with Private First Class Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, the ambush on a military observation outpost south of Baghdad. Four American soldiers and an Iraqi Army translator were killed in the attack.

On May 23, Anzack's body was pulled from the Euphrates River in Babil province, south of Baghdad.

The 10-minute video also included video of a masked man at a diagram board -- apparently the planning stage of the attack -- followed by nighttime video of an apparent attack, and video from Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera of soldiers searching fields.

Sorry for such a brief report, but I am on the road.

Please click
here for more on the video and here for a digest of stories posted at Kiko's House on the ambush and search.

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