Two Missing U.S. Soldiers Found Dead in Iraq

Posted on June 20, 2006

Sad news this Tuesday via Washington Post

The two U.S. soldiers missing since an attack on a checkpoint last week were found dead near a power plant in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad, according to an Iraqi defense official.

General Abdul Aziz Muhammed, head of operations at Iraqi Ministry of Defense said in a news conference in Baghdad this afternoon that the soldiers had been “barbarically” killed and that there were traces of torture on their bodies.

He offered no further details. U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment or confirmation.

More to come. Please pray for their family. Terrible news to wake up to.

James Joyner makes this point.

Ugh. Presumably, though, this vitiates claims yesterday that they had been kidnapped. Not much point in murdering hostages without dragging it out for publicity purposes.

Dan Riehl: Pray for their souls. And hope that we find and kill the bastards that did this to them.

Blogs of War has a roundup of the news.
The U.S. military has scheduled a press conference for 4 p.m. Baghdad time (8 a.m. ET). (ABC has video)

Update via Hot Air:

Press conference right now. Gen. Caldwell won’t confirm or deny the Iraqi report about the two troops; Steve Doocy on Fox says he sounds irritated and speculates it’s because the Iraqis leaked it to the press before the U.S. could notify the families.

QuandO:

This will be the lesson of the day from every commander out there. When you have a group that small, you never split them. You either all go, or you all stay.

There’s another lesson, an unofficial one, which will be passed among the troops themselves. Never surrender. They’ll just kill you anyway. It’s better to go down fighting.

Captain’s Quarters:

One of the families of the two men stated that the US should have paid the ransom from money captured from Saddam Hussein’s riches. I can understand why they feel that way, and I don’t blame them a bit. However, I doubt that the soldiers even survived long enough for any negotiations to take place; they have been missing only a little under four days. In that time, the military received 66 intel tips, 18 of which were actionable, and they didn’t have time to exploit them before the bodies were found. In any case, paying ransom for kidnappings only subsidizes more kidnappings, more Danegeld in proverbial terms, and it is a bad policy overall.

Expose The Left: quotes a report that Al Qaeda in Iraq are claiming that the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did this barbaric act.

Michelle Malkin has a good roundup.

» Filed Under News, War On Terror

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Comments

2 Responses to “Two Missing U.S. Soldiers Found Dead in Iraq”

Draven32 on June 20th, 2006 6:34 am

My heart goes out to the families of these soldiers… for a brief moment, they were led to believe they were alive.
kerwin_brown on June 20th, 2006 10:37 am

Reports say they were tortured so I hope our military is wise enough to do a security assessment to see what might be compromised. The attack sounded like a professional job and professionals do not throw away a gain for no real purpose.

It is sad that they died and were tortured but I am greatful that American soldiers take the risk in order to aid our security. I hope the government and military is not wasting their lives.