BAGHDAD, Iraq – The top U.S. commander in Iraq said he believes he knows who kidnapped three U.S. soldiers last weekend and that at least two of them are still alive, the Army Times newspaper reported.
“We know who that guy is,” Gen. David Petraeus said in an interview posted Saturday on the Army Times Web site. He did not give the man’s name but described him as “sort of an affiliate of al-Qaida. He’s the big player down in that area. We’ve tangled with him before.”
At least one soldier was killed Saturday and four others wounded as insurgents attacked the searchers with guns, mortars and bombs. The military reported a dozen other U.S. troop deaths in Iraq since Thursday.
U.S. forces have been searching for the three since they went missing May 12 after a pre-dawn attack on their observation position about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi were killed in the attack.
According to the newspaper, Petraeus said he did not know for certain whether the three 10th Mountain Division soldiers were alive.
“As of this morning, we thought there were at least two that were probably still alive,” he said. “At one point in time there was a sense that one of them might have died, but again we just don’t know.”
Petraeus spoke with the Army Times late Friday, his staff said.
According to the Army Times, Petraeus said an informant passed on the information about who probably led the attack.
“Somebody’s given us the names of all the guys that participated in it and told us how they did it, and all the rest of that stuff,” he said. “Now, we have to verify that at some point in time, but it sounds spot on. We’ve had all kinds of tips down there. We just tragically haven’t found the individuals.”
An Iraqi army intelligence officer involved in the search for the kidnapped U.S. soldiers said two men detained during the sweep have confessed that they took part in the attack.
The two captives said there were 13 men involved in the assault and they split into two groups afterward, with the ringleader taking the kidnapped soldiers with his band of men. The two men said they did not know where the soldiers had been taken, according to the Iraqi intelligence officer.
The two men also told U.S. forces the location of the weapons cache used in the attack. The U.S. military later confiscated a large number of weapons at the site, the intelligence officer said.
Northeast of the capital, there was more gruesome Iraqi-on-Iraqi murder. Men in Iraqi army uniforms rousted Kurdish villagers from their homes, separated out the able-bodied men, and shot dead 15, according to an Iraqi general and a Kurdish political party.
It was the latest incident in months of sectarian killings in lawless Diyala province and officials said Saturday that the local army commander was fired by the government.
Violence also marred the last visit to Iraq by British Prime Minister Tony Blair before he leaves office. A mortar round hit the British Embassy compound and two more elsewhere in the Green Zone while Blair was in Baghdad. And then, although Blair’s itinerary was not announced, explosions also were heard when Blair went to Basra in southern Iraq, where British forces are based.
The execution-style slayings of 15 Kurds in Hamid Shifi, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad by the men posing as troops, stood out because details of the event were known.
By contrast, there were no narratives attached to the 20 bodies found Saturday around Baghdad. Police said they were all men, handcuffed, blindfolded, shot and then dumped on the streets. All but three were found on the Sunni Muslim side of the city.
In all, at least 93 people were killed or found dead Saturday nationwide.
One well-known Iraqi politician close to the Bush administration narrowly escaped injury.
Ahmad Chalabi was hustled to safety by his bodyguards when attackers struck with mortars and firearms in Buhriz, about 40 miles north of Baghdad and just south of Baqouba.
Chalabi, who helped President Bush sell the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the American public, told Iraqi television afterward that was helping to mobilize the tribes of Diyala province against insurgents but they needed more help from the U.S.-led military forces.
“The multinational forces should be more active and support the residents and the Iraqi forces to counter the terrorism,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aides to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders, said he was flown to Houston, Texas, on Wednesday for tests after doctors in Baghdad suspected he had lung cancer.
U.S. military deaths
Latest identifications reported by the military of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq:
Army Pfc. Aaron Gautier, 19, Hampton, Va.; killed Thursday in Baghdad by small arms fire; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis.
Army Pfc. Jonathan Hamm, 20, Baltimore; killed Thursday in Baghdad by indirect fire; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis.
Army Sgt. Steven Packer, 23, Clovis, Calif.; killed Thursday in Rushdi Mullah by an explosive; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
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