May 12, 2007

5 American Soldiers Killed, 3 Missing in Attack

Via AP:

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi troops searched house-to-house and combed fields with their bare hands Saturday after American troops and their Iraqi interpreter came under attack in the notorious "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, leaving five dead and three missing.

The military said the patrol was struck in a pre-dawn explosion near Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad _ an al-Qaida area where two U.S. soldiers were found massacred after disappearing at a checkpoint nearly a year ago.

A nearby unit heard the blast and the search was launched after communication could not be established with the patrol, the military said, adding that a drone plane later observed two burning vehicles after about15 minutes.

An emergency response unit arrived at the scene about an hour later and found five members of the team killed and three others listed as duty status and whereabouts unknown.

The attack came in the same area where last summer two American soldiers were kidnapped and murdered. The bodies of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker were found mutilated and booby-trapped in June 2006.

Two other American soldiers remain missing in Iraq: Sgt. Matt Maupin, who was captured in April 2004, and Spc. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, an interpreter who was kidnapped in Baghdad in October 2006.

We mourn the loss of the five soldiers who were killed and we pray for the safety of the three missing, as well as for those troops involved in the search and rescue efforts going on now.

Video of the Army news conference describing the attack below the fold.

H/t George.