Pentagon denies soldiers kidnapped in Iraq

Two US soldiers that a previously unknown Iraqi group claimed it had captured are safe and were never missing, the Pentagon said today.

The group sent a statement to Lebanese television today claiming to have kidnapped the pair during an attack on a convoy west of Baghdad.

Calling itself the Al-Madina al-Munawara Division, it sent the station two ID cards allegedly belonging to the Americans.

But the Pentagon said one of the soldiers was being treated at a US army hospital in Texas after losing his ID card when he was injured by a mine.

The other soldier is also safe and in US military hands, officials said.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp had screened close-ups of the cards: one carrying the name Capt Katherine Rose of the 142nd Corps Support Battalion, and a Pennsylvania driver’s licence in the name Andrew Peters, 37.

Peters is the soldier being treated in Texas, and Rose is also safe, the officials said. The identification for Rose was not an official military ID and appeared to be a business card, they said.

Pentagon officials said the military was investigating the incident to determine how the previously unknown group got the cards.