Monday, June 4, 2007

ID cards of missing soldiers shown on insurgent Web site


(CNN) -- A Sunni insurgent group on Monday posted video of the military identification cards of two missing American soldiers in Iraq.
The video also carries an audio commentary in Arabic in which the speaker says, without providing any proof, "We decided to put an end to this matter and announce the death of the soldiers."
According to the commentary, the group made the move because the U.S. military did not heed its demand to end the search for the soldiers.
CNN cannot independently verify the video, which was intercepted by terrorism expert Laura Mansfield.
The video is from the Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq.
The video included a still image of the photo identifications of Spc. Alex R. Jimenez , 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan. (Watch how soldiers' ID cards ended up on Web site )
Above the photos, written in Arabic, was the message, "Bush is the reason for the loss of your prisoners."
The images appear to be authentic U.S. military identification cards, a military official in Washington said.
Military officials recently had received information that video or images related to the missing soldiers might appear on the Internet and contacted their families to inform them, U.S. military sources said.
Jimenez and Fouty went missing along with Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, California, following a May 12 ambush on a military observation post south of Baghdad. Four American soldiers and an Iraqi soldier were killed in the attack.
On May 23, Anzack's body was pulled from the Euphrates River in Babil province, south of Baghdad.
The 10-minute video also included footage of a masked man at a diagram board -- apparently the planning stage of the attack -- followed by nighttime video of an apparent attack, and video from Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera of soldiers searching fields.
Images of what appear to be the missing soldiers' personal effects -- including Visa and Mastercard credit cards, a cross, $50 U.S. bills and Iraqi currency -- are shown at the end of the video.
The video concludes with images apparently taken from the identification cards of the two soldiers.
Gordon Dibler, Fouty's stepfather, said a military official visited him Saturday and told him that video of some of Fouty's personal effects -- including his ID and credit cards -- might appear on the Internet.
Dibler described the news of the video as "a double-edged sword."
"I was frightened of course to await the news, but it gives me some hope," he said.
"We don't know if these people didn't just find these items lying around. I'm hopeful of their return, and I'll keep asking the nation to pray."
Jimenez's mother, Maria Duran, said that the Pentagon hadn't contacted her family.
The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for last month's ambush and called on the U.S. military to halt its search for the missing soldiers.
CNN's Maria Dugandzic, Ines Ferre, Octavia Nasr and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

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