The search for the three missing U.S. soldiers abducted west of Mahmudiyah on May 11 may have taken a turn for the worse. Unconfirmed reports indicate that up to three bodies resembling American soldiers have been found in a river near the town of Mussayab, south of the search area. The bodies are said to have been clothed in Army fatigues. Multinational Forces Iraq confirmed it was working to identify one body, but there is no confirmation on the other two. In today’s briefing, Maj. Gen. Caldwell stated that intelligence indicates both soldiers may still be alive.
Iraqi Special Operations Forces search for missing U.S. soldiers.
In the Triangle of Death, the search for the missing soldiers continues. Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured two suspected insurgents and destroyed three trucks, “which were fabricated as vehicle borne improvised explosive devices, as well as several IED material caches.” U.S. soldiers also captured two suspected insurgents and discovered several weapons caches, one which included “two complete DSHKA heavy machine guns”–an effective antiaircraft weapon. Al Qaeda continues to maintain the attack tempo in the province of Diyala. A suicide bomber struck at a popular coffee shop in the town of Mandali on the Iranian border. At least 20 were killed and another 25 wounded in the attack. Mandali is near Qara Lus, where last week al Qaeda fighters posed as Iraqi troops and killed 15 civilians. Another three were killed and three wounded in a mortar attack in the western portion of the province. Today’s raids against al Qaeda networks in Arab Jabour, Taji, Mosul, Karma, and Fallujah resulted in six al Qaeda killed and 23 captured. “An al-Qaeda regional leader, responsible for al-Qaeda personnel and operations” was killed in one of the raids, while the raid in the small city of Karma resulted in 13 al Qaeda captured. A raid against Iranian backed Mahdi Army cells in Sadr City resulted in two terrorists killed, 19 captured, and the discovery of “a cache of Iranian money and bomb-making materials,” notes Multinational Forces Iraq. “The individual targeted during the raid is suspected of facilitating weapons shipments from Iran to secret cell terrorist elements in Baghdad, Basrah and Maysan province.”
