Two U.S. soldiers, missing for three days since their abduction in an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, were found dead, a military spokesman said Tuesday, and a top U.S. commander ordered an investigation into why the men were isolated from a larger force in such a dangerous part of Iraq.
The remains of the soldiers–Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.–were recovered near a power plant in the town of Youssifiyah, where they had been operating a vehicle checkpoint that came under attack Friday, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said in a briefing. A third soldier, Spec. David Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., died in the initial assault.
“Coalition forces have in fact recovered what we believe to be the remains of our two soldiers,” Caldwell said. “Our heartfelt prayers go out to both the families and friends of our two soldiers.”
Caldwell declined to describe the condition of the soldiers’ bodies, saying it would be “inappropriate until I know what the families were told.” He said it was clear the soldiers died of wounds suffered in captivity, rather than at the site of the attack on the checkpoint, but that the cause of death could not be immediately determined.
According to residents of Youssifiyah and a relative of one of the victims, the soldiers were beheaded. An Iraqi official said they were brutally tortured before their death, but provided no further details.
The bodies will be flown to Kuwait and then to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for full autopsies and DNA testing to ensure they were identified correctly, the military said in a statement.
As 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops scoured the region, a tip from a local resident led them to the soldiers’ bodies after dark Monday night. Because the informant warned that the bodies were booby-trapped, they were not removed until after dawn, the military said.
“We went ahead and established a cordon around the area to protect it so it would be undisturbed at daylight this morning and brought the necessary assets like explosive ordnances,” Caldwell said. “They did have to dismantle some stuff to get to them.”
One U.S. soldier was killed and 12 wounded during the three-day search across a vast area south of Baghdad, while two insurgents were killed and 78 detained, the military said.
Procedures questioned
The killings of the two privates raised questions about why such low-ranking troops were left alone, backed by a single armored Humvee, in a region Caldwell described Thursday as “an insurgent hotbed” and the most dangerous place in Iraq for U.S. forces after Baghdad and Ramadi. Even in safer areas, U.S. troops generally travel in convoys to provide support in case insurgents attack or a vehicle breaks down.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, has ordered an investigation into procedures used that night. “They are looking at the entire situation,” Caldwell said.
To the consternation of U.S. officials, who are careful to withhold casualty details until the soldiers’ families can be notified, the deaths were first reported by an Iraqi defense official. Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed said Tuesday they were tortured and killed “in a barbaric way.”
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, a collection of several insurgent groups including Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed in an Internet statement to have “slaughtered” the two soldiers, suggesting they were beheaded. The group, which had vowed revenge on U.S. forces after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this month, on Monday claimed to have abducted the two privates.
Asked Tuesday if the Internet statements were credible, Caldwell said, “Absolutely not.”
In telephone interviews, two Youssifiyah residents, Muyasar Ghalib al-Qaraghuli, 19, and a tribal leader who gave his name only as Abu Salam, described insurgents beheading and dismembering the soldiers after dragging their bodies behind pickup trucks.
“It’s something that we are against,” Qaraghuli said. “But what could we do? It happened.”
Those accounts could not be independently confirmed.
Menchaca’s uncle, Mario Vasquez, said military officials told him Tuesday that the two soldiers were beheaded, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Iraqi forces killed 2 GIs in ’04
Also Tuesday, it was announced that two California soldiers shot to death in Iraq were murdered by Iraqi civil defense officers patrolling with them.
The deaths of Army Spec. Patrick McCaffrey Sr. and 1st Lt. Andre Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004.
But the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the U.S. soldiers on patrol fired at them, a military official said. It was unclear whether the investigators established a motive or arrested suspects.
Violence continued in Baghdad despite efforts to tighten security. Four explosions detonated within an hour Tuesday morning in and around Baghdad, killing 13 people, said Col. Adil Saeed al-Samarai of the Interior Ministry.
In the southern city of Basra, a bomber blew himself up inside a home for the elderly, killing five people, said al-Samarai.
