Al-Qaida capture claims denied

TWO US marines taking part in an offensive in western Iraq are reported to have been captured by al-Qaida.

In a web statement, the group threatened to kill the marines “within 24 hours” but a US military spokesman said he believed the claim was false.

A spokesman for US forces in Iraq, Lt Col Steve Boylan, said in a statement: “I have not heard anything about any of our folks being taken. I would suspect that these are unfounded rumours, as that is what has happened in the past.”

The al-Qaida in Iraq statement said the two marines were captured during Operation Iron Fist, an offensive that entered its second day in towns near the Syrian border.

It said al-Qaida fighters captured the two “after surrounding their patrol”, which it said was part of “their futile assault against the homes of Sunnis, the so-called Iron Fist”.

Al-Qaida set a 24-hour deadline for Sunni women to be released from Iraqi and US prisons - or else the two would be killed.

“The mujahedeen are eager to slaughter them,” the statement said.

Some 1,000 US Marines, soldiers and sailors launched Operation Iron Fist on Saturday, sweeping into the village of Sadah, 180 miles northwest of Baghdad, to hunt for al-Qaida militants.

Hundreds of troops combed a village near the Syrian border, breaking into houses and fighting with gunmen on the second day of a new offensive against al-Qaida insurgents. At least eight militants were killed, the military said.

In Baghdad, insurgents kidnapped the brother of interior minister Bayan Jabr, the Shi’ite official who heads police forces, on Saturday, while the son of another top ministry official was kidnapped north of the capital, police said.

Two Iraqis were killed yesterday in drive-by shootings in Baghdad and Karbala.