Missing US troops 'held by al-Qaida group'

An al-Qaida front group claims to have captured American soldiers in a deadly Iraq attack, as thousands of US troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

The statement was made yesterday, one of the deadliest days in Iraq in recent weeks, with at least 126 people killed or found dead – including two American soldiers who died in separate bombings in Anbar and Salahuddin provinces.

The al-Qaida-linked group also claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bomb that tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq, killing 50 people. A car bombing also hit a crowded Baghdad market, killing another 17.

Troops surrounded the town of Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.

Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing “searched” on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.

The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its claim that it was behind the attack on Saturday in Mahmoudiya that also killed four US soldiers and an Iraqi translator. But the Sunni area known as the “triangle of death” is a long-time al-Qaida stronghold.

If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the umbrella Sunni insurgent group against US forces.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the US military, said 4,000 US troops backed by aircraft and intelligence units were scouring the farming area as the military made “every effort available to find our missing soldiers”.

US President George Bush was getting regular updates on the missing soldiers, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council in Washington.

The early morning attack on two U.S. military vehicles outside of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, left the bodies of the four US soldiers and their translator badly burned.

Caldwell said the bodies of the interpreter and three of the dead soldiers had been identified, but the military was still working to identify the fifth.

The Islamic State of Iraq posted a brief message on a militant website saying it was responsible for the attack and held an unspecified number of US soldiers.