Al-Qaida group claims it killed US soldiers

An al-Qaida-umbrella group claimed its militants killed three American soldiers after capturing them last month in Iraq, according to a new video released today.

“The Americans sent 4,000 soldiers looking for them and … fearing that this will have bad repercussions, the state of Islam decided to and announced their killing making it a bitter result for the enemies of God because they were alive and then dead,” said an unidentified voice on the video, which was made available to The Associated Press by the Washington-based SITE Institute.

The video does not offer any proof that the soldiers were killed and does not show the soldiers.

The militants said in the video that the soldiers were buried, but again, did not offer proof.

He unidentified voice blamed their deaths on: “The American army and their leaders, who do not care for the feelings of the soldiers’ families.”

The three US soldiers were captured south of Baghdad on May 12 in an ambush later claimed by the insurgent umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq, that includes al-Qaida in Iraq. The body of one soldier was later found in Iraq’s Euphrates River, the US military has said, but the other two remain missing.

The 10-minute, 41-second video shows black-and-white, night-time footage of what the group said was the ambush that led to the soldiers’ capture. But this footage was grainy and unclear. The sounds of gunshots could be heard in the video clip.