US soldiers reported tortured, beheaded.
Abducted soldiers' remains are found.
The remains of the soldiers - Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. - were recovered near a power plant in the town of Youssifiyah, where they had been operating a vehicle checkpoint that came under attack Friday, Major General William Caldwell said.
A third soldier, Specialist David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., died in the initial assault.
Caldwell said that it was clear the soldiers had died of wounds suffered in captivity, rather than at the site of the attack on the checkpoint, but that the cause of death could not be immediately determined.
He declined to describe the condition of the soldiers' bodies. Other officials suggested that the soldiers were so wounded or mutilated that they could not be positively identified.
The director of the Iraqi Defense Ministry's operation room, Major General Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies showed signs of having been tortured. 'With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way,' he said. He provided no further details. According to residents of Youssifiyah and a relative of one of the victims, the soldiers were beheaded.
The Mujahideen Shura Council, a collection of several insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed in an Internet statement to have 'slaughtered' the two soldiers, suggesting they were beheaded. The group, which had vowed revenge on US forces after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this month, had on Monday claimed to have abducted the two privates.
The Shura Council's statement said that Zarqawi's successor, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, had personally killed the soldiers.
In telephone interviews, two Youssifiyah residents, Muyasar Ghalib al-Qaraghuli, 19, and a tribal leader who gave his name only as Abu Salam, described a gruesome scene in which insurgents beheaded and dismembered the soldiers after dragging their bodies behind pickup trucks.
Strict rules usually protect American forces from capture.
BALAD, Iraq - Few American soldiers have been kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq, due largely to strict military procedures for those on patrol or at checkpoints.
The gruesome killings of two kidnapped U.S. soldiers showed just how important those measures are, and pose a central question: was there a breakdown in what the military calls 'force protection' procedures?
U.S. troops in Iraq travel in groups of about 15 in at least three vehicles - usually armored Humvees. If a convoy has more than four Humvees, often units will split into groups of two to patrol more area.
But a single Humvee patrol is not allowed.
In the case of the soldiers kidnapped Friday, a farmer later told The Associated Press that he saw insurgents swarm a U.S. checkpoint in a region south of Baghdad known as the 'Triangle of Death.'
The farmer said the insurgents managed to draw away two Humvees by firing on them. When they chased the attackers, the insurgents killed the driver of the third Humvee that stayed behind. Two Americans - presumably Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, both of the Fort Campbell, Ky.- based 101st Airborne Division - were captured.
An Iraqi Defense Ministry official said the men were tortured and 'killed in a barbaric way;' al-Qaida in Iraq claimed they were 'slaughtered' like animals - language suggesting the men were beheaded.
Who's Who in Ramadi Among the Insurgent Groups.
By Lydia Khalil
U.S. forces have amassed an additional 1,500 troops for another security crackdown in Iraq's predominantly Sunni Arab center in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. The Ramadi operation, as yet unconfirmed by the U.S. military, is part of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security offensive on the heels of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death. Multinational forces cordoned off the city and used loudspeakers to warn citizens of impending attacks (al-Jazeera, June 15). Which insurgents, however, are the multinational troops targeting and what can they expect as they step up attacks against insurgents embedded in Ramadi?
Insurgent groups operating in Iraq are a mix of the usual suspects as well as more obscure groups. Prior to al-Zarqawi's death, there were rifts between his organization—al-Qaeda in Iraq—and indigenous Iraqi insurgents in the Anbar area. Evidence has shown that he was driven from Anbar by Iraqi tribal elements and indigenous insurgents frustrated with his modus operandi. Al-Zarqawi's departure, however, did not stop insurgent groups affiliated with him and al-Qaeda from continuing operations in Ramadi. Below is a sampling of groups that the multinational forces may face during the Ramadi crackdown.
Senior al-Qaeda figure killed.
A US air strike on a fleeing vehicle killed a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader on Friday in the same area where two American soldiers went missing a few hours later, a US military spokesman said today.
US 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, said Major General William Caldwell.
Mashhadani was one of the top five al Qaeda in Iraq leaders and close to its mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was also killed by a US air strike on June 7.
'He was a right-hand man to Zarqawi,' Caldwell told a news conference.
Lawyer Representing Saddam Hussein Killed.
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 21, 2006; 6:27 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- One of Saddam Hussein's lawyers was shot to death Wednesday after he was abducted from his home by men wearing police uniforms in Baghdad, court and police officials said.
Khamis al-Obeidi, who represented Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim in their eight-month-old trial, was abducted from his house at 7 a.m., said Saddam's top lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi. His body was found shot to death on a street near the Shiite slum of Sadr City, police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi confirmed that al-Obeidi had been killed, although he did not provide any details
