An al-Qaida-linked group posted a web video today purporting to show the bodies of two American soldiers being dragged behind a truck, then set on fire in apparent retaliation for the rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by US troops from the same unit.

Explosives experts had to dismantle three roadside bombs to reach the bodies of two missing US soldiers in Iraq, whose remains were found tied together with a bomb between one of the soldier’s legs.

US forces today recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week.

A senior Iraqi military official today said the bodies of two missing US soldiers had been discovered on a street near the town where they went missing.

The US military today said it had intensified its search for two missing soldiers, with more than 8,000 Iraqi and US troops combing the volatile area south of Baghdad where the men were attacked.