US military confirms two slain soldiers abducted

BAGHDAD - The US military confirmed today that two American soldiers found dead south of Baghdad last week were kidnapped and killed by insurgents and said their "severely traumatised" bodies had been booby-trapped.

A military statement said Privates First Class Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker were part of a three-man team guarding a canal crossing next to the Euphrates River when they were taken south of Yusufiya on June 16.

"The two bodies, severely traumatised, were found bound together with an IED (makeshift bomb) between one of the soldiers' legs," it said.

The statement did not say where Menchaca and Tucker were killed nor which group was behind the killings, but it said two al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents were killed in a search operation launched after the soldiers went missing.

A military spokesman said it was not clear when the two, whose bodies were found on June 19, were killed.

A group linked to al Qaeda had said it abducted the two American soldiers near Yusufiya, an al Qaeda stronghold.

The third soldier of the three-man team guarding the canal, Specialist David Babineau, was killed when insurgents overwhelmed their position on June 16, the US military statement said without providing more details.

Major General William Caldwell, the senior spokesman for the US military in Iraq, told reporters last week the bodies were found at an electricity plant near Yusufiya and that they were retrieved the day after they were discovered because the area was rigged with explosives.

The statement said an explosive ordinance disposal team cleared the route up to the site of the bodies, "fighting their way through three roadside bombs in the process".

The US military said 12 coalition soldiers were wounded during the search, which involved 8000 US and Iraqi soldiers.

The statement said 36 "suspected anti-Iraqi forces" had been detained after the operation, and that two of the detainees had admitted to being al Qaeda members.

- REUTERS