2 US Soldiers MIA

[zipperhead_cop]

From the CBC:

Two soldiers who had been missing in Iraq since Friday have been found dead, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The bodies were found last night in the vicinity of Yusufiya. Coalition forces have recovered what we believe are the remains of the soldiers," said Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell at a news conference in Baghdad.


Pte. 1st Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pte. 1st Class Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., had been missing since an attack last Friday that killed another soldier.


More than 8,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops had been searching for Menchaca and Tucker. Caldwell said the bodies were found late on Monday.


Earlier in the day, Iraqi military official Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed said the two bodies showed signs of "barbaric torture."


Witnesses said the Americans were taken Friday evening after Iraqi insurgents lured two of three U.S. military vehicles away from a checkpoint in Yusufiya, about 20 kilometres south of Baghdad.


Gunmen then attacked the remaining vehicle, killing Specialist David J. Babineau, 25, and abducting two other men, the local residents said.


The attack occurred in a Sunni-dominated region south of the capital that is known as the Triangle of Death because of its high number of insurgent attacks.


The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an Iraqi militant group, said on Monday that it had abducted the two men. The group also claimed responsibility for the abductions of four Russian diplomats earlier this month.


The council is an umbrella organization that includes several militant groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike earlier this month.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/cbc/s/20062006/3/world-missing-u-s-soldiers-found-dead-iraq.html

I hope we get to hear about the vicious, cold rain of hell that ensues from this. 
God comfort their poor tortured souls, and be with their families. 

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Tomahawk I agree that surrender is certain death and I hope I never have to make that decision but do we know they surrendered.  They may have been incapacitated by explosions or shot and couldn't resist.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

From CNN the bodies were booby trapped as were the routes for recovery.  The bodies can not be visually identified do to the torture and therefore DNA will have to be used.

 

[paracowboy]

not knowing any more than anyone else right now, this is hardly gospel, but I find it hard to believe that any US soldier would surrender in Iraq. I think it more likely that they were, as Quag asked, incapacitated in some way.

If, (IF) these bodies are, in fact, the missing US pers. In any case, my sympathies go out to the families and comrades of the missing soldiers.

 

[Cloud Cover]

From the accounts in the new media, what happened to these 2 soldiers was absolutely horrific even by Iraq standards and I hope those that have done these truly evil deeds are found and made to pay.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Whiskey, Karma's a bitch.  If they are stupid enough to take credit for it I think they will be seeing Allah sooner then later.

 

[GAP]

There's day to day stuff and then there's a "mission". I predict the next little while will see an awful lot of guys on a "Mission".

 

[Bobbyoreo]

Thoughts and prayers with the families and friends.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

GAP since the death of numb nuts there I believe there have been an awful lot of operations that have killed a lot of baddies.  This will only further the American soldiers resolve I suspect.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

not knowing any more than anyone else right now, this is hardly gospel, but I find it hard to believe that any US soldier would surrender in Iraq. I think it more likely that they were, as Quag asked, incapacitated in some way.

Or simply stunned by the death of the driver and overwhelmed.

 

[big bad john]

Thoughts and prayers with them and their loved ones.



Kristian Menchaca (left) and Thomas Tucker

 

[AFireinside13]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/20/soldiers.missing/index.html

U.S. soldiers' bodies mutilated, booby-trapped
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The bodies of two U.S. soldiers found in Iraq Monday night were mutilated and booby-trapped, military sources said Tuesday.

Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, went missing after a Friday attack on a traffic control checkpoint in Yusufiya, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

The sources said the two men had suffered severe trauma. (Watch how bodies were recovered -- 2:14)

The bodies also had been desecrated and a visual identification was impossible -- part of the reason DNA testing was being conducted to verify their identities, the sources said.

A tip from Iraqi civilians led officials to the bodies, military sources told CNN. The discovery was made about 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Not only were the bodies booby-trapped, but homemade bombs also lined the road leading to the victims, an apparent effort to complicate recovery efforts and target recovery teams, the sources said.

It took troops 12 hours to clear the area of roadside bombs. One of the bombs exploded, but there were no injuries.

The bodies were found in the Yusufiya area, said U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, adding he believed the soldiers were mortally wounded, then moved.

It was unclear whether he meant the wounds were suffered in the initial attack on a checkpoint or afterward. "Where we found them was not based on their own movements," Caldwell said.

The soldiers' families have been notified of the developments, he said.

The bodies were transferred to a coalition base and were to be taken to the United States for DNA testing.

A high-ranking official with the Iraqi defense ministry earlier offered a conflicting account, telling CNN the soldiers' bodies were found Saturday in Jurf al-Sakhar town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

Group claims killings
A claim posted on a Web site Tuesday said the soldiers were "slaughtered" in accordance with "God's will."

"We announce the good news to our Islamic nation that we executed God's will and slaughtered the two crusader animals we had in captivity," said the claim, reportedly from the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a group linked to al Qaeda.

"And God has given our Emir, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the good fortune of carrying out the legitimate court's command in person."

The U.S. military believes al-Muhajer is another name for Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian-born terrorist who it believes has replaced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier this month, as leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

CNN could not independently verify the claim, but the Web site frequently has carried such messages from insurgent groups.

Asked whether he gives credibility to a Monday claim by the same group that it had abducted the soldiers, Caldwell said, "Absolutely not."

Earlier, military spokesman Maj. William Wilhoite said he did not know whether the bodies showed signs of torture. "I haven't heard anything through our official channels," he said.

The U.S. military said Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was killed in the Friday attack, after which Menchaca and Tucker went missing.

Asked to provide more information about the attack, Caldwell said the military would provide details after making sure the soldiers' families were fully apprised about the incident.

Families 'devastated'
Menchaca's aunt told CNN the family had been notified of his death.

Menchaca's uncle, Mario Vasquez, said family members were distraught and were waiting to receive the body before making any arrangements.

Earlier, some family members heard of a possible discovery through the media, before being notified by the military, Vasquez said.

He called for the military to retaliate swiftly against the kidnappers.

"I wish they'd punish the people that do these kinds of things right away, instead of taking forever and spending millions of dollars," Vasquez said.

"I think you capture them, make them pay for what they did. Don't think that it's just two more soldiers. Don't negotiate anything. They [the killers] didn't."

Another of Menchaca's uncles, Ken MacKenzie, lashed out at the government on NBC's "Today Show," saying it didn't do enough to bring the men home safe, The Associated Press reported. (Full story)

A force of more than 8,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops searched for the two soldiers. Searchers initially found a body thought to be that of one of the soldiers, Caldwell said, but turned out not to be.

Caldwell said troops used unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, boats and dive teams in the search.

One coalition soldier was killed and 12 were wounded during the search operations, he said. Two "anti-Iraqi elements" were killed and another 78 suspected insurgents have been detained, he said.

The Oregon National Guard released a statement on behalf of the Tucker family Tuesday afternoon.

"At this time, the family is devastated at the news their son may have been killed," the statement said. "They ask for continuing respect for their privacy now at this time of difficulty."

The three soldiers involved in Friday's attack were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the military said.

End Story.

I hope when the coalition gets their hands on this new "leader" Abu Ayyub al-Masri they give him all the pleasentries he deserves. Absolutely discusting.
My sincere condolences to the family, friends, and allies down south. 
RIP troop.

 

[manhole]

our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends...........we are fighting against a different kind of enemy - they don't play by the same rules we do.........        

Ubique

 

[muskrat89]

Funny, there will never be as much furor over things like this as there was over Abu Gharaib  ???

 

[Cloud Cover]

CNN is reporting the army has confirmed that at least one of these boys was tortured and decapitated. This scene must have been horrific.

Reproduced under the fair dealings provisions of the Copyright Act:

Family gets word of soldier's brutal death

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Relatives of a Texas soldier caught in an insurgent attack in Iraq said Thursday the military had confirmed one of two brutalized bodies found there was his.

Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca's family had gathered at his mother's Brownsville home, hoping that DNA tests would determine the young newlywed wasn't one of the victims found Tuesday.

"They have confirmed that it is Kristian," his aunt, Hermelinda Gomez, said Thursday before returning inside the single-story brick house.

Menchaca, a 23-year-old soldier from Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, disappeared after an insurgent attack Friday at a checkpoint by a Euphrates River canal, 12 miles south of Baghdad, that killed another U.S. soldier.

A U.S. military official said Wednesday that one and possibly both soldiers were tortured and beheaded. The bodies were sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday for DNA testing.

Felipa Gomez, Menchaca's 16-year-old cousin, said the military official who had been updating the family came with the news in the middle of the night.

"We had already expected it," she said, showing a poster full of snapshots of Menchaca that she had made the night before.

Friends and neighbors had decorated the front yard with yellow ribbons, American flags, and red, white, and blue silk flowers. A group of local veterans came to offer condolences.

Gomez said that the body was expected home within a few days, and that Menchaca's wife, 18-year-old Christina Menchaca, of Big Spring, was going to come down for the funeral once it arrived.

The soldier's close-knit Mexican-American family described him as a sweet, quiet young man who joined the military last year and deployed to Iraq within months.

Tucker graduated from high school in 1999 and worked a variety of construction jobs before he decided to join the Army last summer. His friends said he liked to angle for catfish in the Prineville Reservoir and hunt deer in the Ochoco Mountains.

He enjoyed the adrenaline rush of being a part of the action, said his father, Wes Tucker.

The U.S. military recovered the bodies in an area it said was rigged with explosives. An Iraqi official said the Americans were tortured and killed in a "barbaric" way.

Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was killed in the attack. The three men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

After Iraqi officials disclosed that the bodies were found Tuesday, the Shura Council posted a Web statement, saying that the successor to slain Iraqi al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" the soldiers. The language in the statement, which could not be authenticated, suggested the men were beheaded.

The insurgent group claimed the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq executed the men personally, but offered no evidence. The U.S. military did not confirm whether the soldiers died from wounds suffered in the attack Friday or were later killed.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
 
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/22/missing.soldiers.bodies.ap/index.html 

 

[17thRecceSgt]

  RIP Troops 

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

One of the families wanted the specifics. 

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Funny, there will never be as much furor over things like this as there was over Abu Gharaib   ???

People expect more from Americans than they do from terrorists, whether they like to admit it or not. A terrorist acting like a barbarian unfortunately isn't news; Americans acting "barbarous" is more newsworthy...even if that barbarity is more like a college prank in terms of severity, in relation to the beheading and torture of prisoners.

I agree with you, though, and am at a loss to understand the lack of outrage. I guess public perception is increasingly that the US shouldn't be there - something most of us on this site probably disagree with to some extent.

 

[big bad john]

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=38251

Military releases details of search for kidnapped GIs
Booby-trapped remains final obstacle in retrieving bodies

Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, June 28, 2006



Eric Gay / AP
Under honor guard escort, the remains of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca are unloaded off an airplane at the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport in Brownsville, Texas, on Monday as his widow, Christina, 18, second from left, is comforted.


American forces searching for two soldiers abducted during an attack near Youssifiyah last week fought through at least 10 roadside bombs, dismantled 17 others before they could detonate, and found the soldiers’ remains strapped with yet another bomb, officials said late Monday.

Insurgents also conducted “harassing attacks” on the search teams with both indirect and direct fire.

In releasing more details about the search for Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, the U.S. military command in Baghdad said that 36 men suspected of involvement in the attack and abduction had been detained. Of those, 13 “are providing intelligence of value.”

In a news release, the military officially confirmed that the two sets of remains recovered near an electrical plant on June 19 were those of Menchaca and Tucker. Military medical examiners used DNA testing to confirm the soldiers’ identities; military officials said the two sets of remains had been “severely traumatized.”

According to an updated time line of the incident provided by Multi-National Corps-Iraq spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle Martin–Hing, the initial attack was on a three-man security team manning a checkpoint near Youssifiyah, south of Baghdad, where the soldiers were guarding a canal crossing near the Euphrates River.

Spc. David J. Babineau was killed in the attack, and the other two soldiers were taken captive after “terrorists overwhelmed the position,” Martin-Hing said. All three soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.

Menchaca and Tucker were taken to an unknown location and later killed.

An hour after the attack, officials said, air and ground forces cordoned off the area and began search operations. Later, that search force would grow to 8,000 American and Iraqi troops.

“Twenty-five military operations were conducted, including 11 air assault missions. More than 12 villages and an old power plant were searched,” the news release read. “In the massive effort to locate the missing soldiers, 12 soldiers were wounded.”

Iraqi citizens reportedly provided almost 80 tips, with one local sheik and one detainee providing information that led to the remains being found. The remains were found on June 19 around 7:50 p.m. next to a road near the village of Mufaraji. The sources also warned of explosives in the area.

Troops waited until daylight to approach the bodies, and “at first light, the engineers cleared the route up to the site of the bodies, fighting their way through three roadside bombs in the process,” according to the release.

“The two bodies, severely traumatized, were found bound together with a [makeshift bomb] between one of the soldiers’ legs. The engineers successfully cleared the [bomb] and the surrounding area to allow recovery of the remains,” the release said.

 

[big bad john]

From todays Army Times Early Bird Report:

Insurgent Group Posts Video of 2 Mutilated U.S. Soldiers
(New York Times, July 11, 2006)
Insurgents posted an Internet video showing the mutilated corpses of two American soldiers who were abducted in June and found murdered days later during a search by American and Iraqi forces south of Baghdad. A message with the video said the soldiers were killed out of revenge for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl in March, a crime in which at least six American soldiers are suspects.