Insurgent video shows IDs of missing U.S. soldiers

(Corrects seventh paragraph to read "loss of your captives", instead of "your families' loss".)

DUBAI, June 4 (Reuters) - A Web video posted by an al Qaeda-led group in Iraq showed pictures of what appeared to be ID cards of two missing U.S. soldiers it said it captured last month, suggesting they may have been killed since.

"Fearing the occupying army will continue its searches, harming our Muslim brothers ... (the Islamic State in Iraq) decided to settle the matter and announced the news of their killing to cause bitterness to God's enemies," said a speaker on the video, obtained from the U.S.-based SITE Institute. Web sites often used by al Qaeda-linked groups said earlier on Monday they would soon show the abduction of three Americans, apparently referring to three U.S. soldiers who went missing in Iraq last month after a clash. In Baghdad, the U.S. military said it was studying the video.

"We are further analysing the video, however it doesn't appear to contain any definitive evidence indicating the status of our missing soldiers," Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said in a statement.

"As you refuse to hand over the bodies of our killed, we shall not deliver the bodies of your dead," the off-camera speaker said on the video.The U.S. military has carried out an intensive search and found the body of one of the three U.S. soldiers missing after an attack south of Baghdad.

The 10-minute video carried a picture of the U.S. Army identification cards of Byron Fouty and Alex Jimenez, with the caption: "(President George W.) Bush is the cause of the loss of your captives." The U.S. military has said it believed the three had been taken by al Qaeda or others associated with the militant group, after the Islamic State in Iraq group said it was holding the soldiers.




Source : www.alertnet.org

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