2 other soldiers slain, video says

BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda-linked insurgents claimed in a video that surfaced Monday to have killed three U.S. soldiers who went missing after an assault on their patrol last month, but offered no proof.

The U.S. military recovered the body of one of the soldiers on May 23, but the other two remain missing.

The nearly 11-minute clip, a copy of which was provided to The Times by the Washington-based SITE Institute, includes a close-up of two military identification cards said to belong to the still-missing soldiers. But it does not show the pair.

“We are further analyzing the video; however, it doesn’t appear to contain any definitive evidence indicating the status of our missing soldiers,” military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said in a statement. “We continue to search and hope that our two missing soldiers will be found alive and in good health.”

The soldiers have been the subject of a massive search since the May 12 ambush south of Baghdad.

Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter died in the initial assault. The body of Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance was pulled from the Euphrates River less than two weeks later. Still listed as missing are Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich.

The video obtained by SITE, which monitors militant websites, was produced by the publishing unit of the Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq militants who profess loyalty to Osama bin Laden.

It includes footage purporting to show masked gunmen discussing the May attack using a plan tacked to a tree, and shaky nighttime images of clashes said to have been filmed during the ambush. It was impossible to verify the claims.

An unidentified voice on the tape states that the soldiers were captured alive. The voice accuses the U.S. military of ignoring instructions contained on an earlier Internet posting to not search for the missing men.

“The U.S. Army sent 4,000 troops to search for the three prisoners.... They believed in their technologies and abilities,” the off-camera speaker taunts. “And as usual these searches were accompanied by random arrests and the humiliation of Muslim women and elderly men. They did not even leave the mosque guards alone.”

“The Islamic State of Iraq decided to put an end to this issue,” the voice continues. “They were living prisoners, and now they are dead bodies.”

The final scenes on the tape show the identification cards and other personal effects said to have been seized during the ambush, including a pistol, credit cards, $50 bills and Iraqi currency.

The U.S. military said it had heard rumors that a video was about to be released and had warned the soldiers’ families over the weekend.

“Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of our missing,” Bergner said in the statement. “We condemn the tactics used by these terrorists, and are using all means available to pursue those responsible.”

The video surfaced on a day when at least 37 Iraqis were killed or found slain in Baghdad, where a security crackdown is in its fourth month.

U.S. and Iraqi forces control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, despite the addition of thousands of troops since the plan began in mid-February, the U.S. military acknowledged Monday, confirming a report in the New York Times.

Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, said commanders had warned that it would take months for the plan to yield results.

The last of five promised combat brigades will not be fully in place until mid-June, he said. About 3,000 troops initially deployed in Baghdad had to be diverted to neighboring Diyala province to deal with escalating violence there.

Garver also expressed concern about some of the Iraqi units taking part in the crackdown, including questions about their loyalty.

Iraqi officials acknowledge that Shiite Muslim militiamen have infiltrated their security forces, which the fighters use as cover for kidnappings, killings and other attacks. Dozens of gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped five British contractors from a Finance Ministry building last week.

Underscoring the remaining challenges, police in Baghdad recovered the bodies of at least 28 men shot execution-style, a hallmark of sectarian killings.

In Rome, meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI expressed sorrow over the slaying of Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, a Chaldean Catholic priest in Mosul, and three deacons working with him. Gunmen pulled the four from their car and shot them after they finished Mass on Sunday in the northern city.

In a telegram to Chaldean bishops in Mosul, the pope said he hoped the men’s “costly sacrifice” would inspire in Iraqis “a renewed resolve to reject the ways of hatred and violence.”

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Benedict would discuss the Iraq war with President Bush, who arrives in Italy this weekend. The pope also will raise with Bush the plight of Iraq’s diminishing and besieged Christian community, Bertone said.

Police in Mosul could not immediately confirm that the men were targeted for their faith. Some in the ethnically and religiously mixed city blamed their deaths on a carjacking.

“The investigations are still ongoing; we haven’t determined the motive behind the crime yet,” said police Brig. Gen. AbdulKareem Jabouri.

[email protected]

Times staff writers Mohammed Rasheed in Baghdad and Tracy Wilkinson in Rome, special correspondent Ruaa Al-Zarary in Mosul and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.