US forces hunt for 'abducted' troops in Iraq

American forces scoured the desert today for two US soldiers who were apparently abducted from an observation post north of Baghdad.

The men went missing from their position near the town of Balad on Wednesday night, the Pentagon said.

Apache attack helicopters immediately launched a search of the area, but have so far found no trace of the troops or their Humvee vehicle.

Attacks on the occupation forces in Iraq have escalated at such a rate in recent days that fresh reports have been coming in almost hourly.

In the last two days, assailants have blown up a US military vehicle with a bomb, dropped grenades on others, destroyed a civilian car that was part of a US convoy, demolished an oil pipeline and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a US army truck.

On Tuesday, six British soldiers were gunned down after being cornered in a police station in a southern town that had previously been peaceful.

Coalition officials have played down the mounting violence, but with shattered glass, blood stains and mangled vehicles littering the Iraqi landscape, there is growing concern that the occupation could be turning into a fully fledged guerrilla war.

Maj William Thurmond, a US military spokesman, said the spate of ambushes could be in response to recent raids on Baath party strongholds.

“There have been more attacks recently, but it is probably premature to say this is part of a pattern,” he said. “We have kicked open the nests of some of these bad guys.”

An Iraqi police official, Brig Ahmed Khazem, called the ambushes “isolated actions ... carried out by individual mercenaries”.

But Al-Jazeera TV aired statements yesterday from two previously unknown groups urging more attacks on US-led forces in Iraq.

One, by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect, claimed responsibility for recent attacks and promised more.

The other, by the Popular Resistance for the Liberation of Iraq, called for “revenge” against America.

US intelligence officials said they had not previously heard of the two groups and had no way of knowing whether they were credible.

Even before the latest violence began, US intelligence officers had warned ground commanders to expect an increase in attacks on US forces between June 25 and July 10. It was not clear what information that warning was based on.

The US has blamed attacks on isolated remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime and his Sunni Muslim followers, claiming there was no organised resistance.