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.

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.