BAGHDAD, 15 May 2007 — An Al-Qaeda front group that claims it has captured three missing American soldiers issued a statement yesterday warning the US military to stop searching for them, and suggested it launched the attack on the soldiers’ convoy to seek retribution for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in the same area of Iraq a year ago.
The US military also said for the first time it believes the soldiers were abducted by Al-Qaeda-linked militants after an attack that included three roadside bombs. “What you are doing in searching for your soldiers will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches. Your soldiers are in our hands. If you want their safety, do not look for them,” the Islamic State of Iraq said on a website.
“You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area,” the statement said, referring to five American soldiers who were charged in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Al-Janabi and the killings of her parents and her younger sister last year.
The crime in the city of Mahmudiya was one of the most shocking atrocities committed by US troops in the Iraq war. Three soldiers have pleaded guilty in the case.
Three US soldiers have been missing since Saturday after a deadly attack on their convoy in Mahmudiya, about 30 km south of Baghdad. The attack also killed four US soldiers and an Iraqi Army soldier, according to a statement by the military, which earlier had said the Iraqi was an interpreter.
On Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed that it had captured the US soldiers in the deadly attack in the Sunni area, which is known as the “triangle of death” and is an Al-Qaeda stronghold. Yesterday, US military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said: “At this time, we believe they (the three soldiers) were abducted by terrorists belonging to Al-Qaeda or an affiliated group, and this assessment is based on highly credible intelligence information.” About 4,000 US troops backed by aircraft, intelligence units and Iraqi forces have been scouring the farming area around Mahmudiya and the nearby town of Youssifiyah for three days, as the military promised to make every effort to find the missing soldiers.
Mahmudiya residents complained yesterday that coalition forces had searched through their homes, and AP Television News footage showed on one apartment that appeared to have been ransacked during the search. One man said three residents in the area, including two guards at a local mosque, had been detained by coalition forces.
Yesterday, two US soldiers on a foot patrol southeast of Baghdad were killed when they came under fire, the military said in a statement. A roadside bomb near the southern city of Basra also killed one Danish soldier and wounded five, according to Maj. Kim Gruenberger of the Danish Army Operational Command.
Seven Danish soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began. In February, the Danish government said it would withdraw its 460-member contingent from Basra by August and replace it with a smaller helicopter unit.
