US Soldiers 'Found Dead' In Iraq

" I could say a lot about the bastards who did this... I will let Almighty God deal will them..."   Peter Paton http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5098186.stm US Soldiers 'Found Dead' In Iraq

Flags were raised outside Thomas Tucker's home in Oregon Two US soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday have been found dead south of Baghdad, the US military has said. The bodies were found in the Yusifiya area on Monday. An Iraqi defence ministry spokesman said the bodies had shown signs of torture. An insurgent group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq had claimed it abducted the soldiers from a checkpoint. The missing men have been named as Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, both from the 101st Airborne Division. Another US soldier, David Babineau, was killed in the attack on the checkpoint. Relatives' anger US military spokesman in Iraq, Maj Gen William Caldwell, said the bodies were found late on Monday by US troops. "We have recovered what we believe are the remains of our two missing soldiers. They will be taken back to the United States for positive verification." He said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point". But Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Gen Abdul Aziz Mohammed said: "We found they had been tortured in a barbaric fashion." Coalition troops had been carrying out a massive search for the missing men. Gen Caldwell promised a full account of the events would be given later on Tuesday. At least three people were killed in one bomb blast in Baghdad But relatives of the men have already reacted with grief and anger. Ken MacKenzie, uncle of Kristian Menchaca, said on US television: "Because the US government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life." An internet statement posted by the Mujahideen Shura Council - a grouping of insurgents that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq - said it had abducted the soldiers. Agence France-Presse news agency reports the group has now posted another message saying it had "slaughtered" the soldiers, although this cannot be independently confirmed. Market bombs Separately, the US military said it had killed 15 gunmen in raids near Baquba, north of Baghdad. It said the raids targeted people associated with a suspected senior member of al-Qaeda in Iraq and took place after US troops came under fire. The former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US air strike near Baquba on 7 June. Violence has continued in Iraq despite Zarqawi's death and a new security clampdown involving 40,000 troops in Baghdad: At least three people are killed in a car bomb in a market in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad Two more people are killed and 28 hurt in an explosion at a clothes market in central Baghdad Elsewhere, at least one elderly woman was killed along with a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside a home for the elderly in the southern city of Basra.