Two U.S. soldiers killed "in a barbaric way"

BAGHDAD, Iraq — As the mutilated bodies of two American soldiers were flown to the United States in flag-draped coffins Tuesday night, the U.S. military launched a top-level investigation to determine why their vehicle had been traveling alone outside a fortified army camp when they were abducted.

A group affiliated with al-Qaida in Iraq took responsibility for killing the servicemen, whose bodies were found near an electrical plant in Youssifiyah, not far from where they had disappeared Friday night.

U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell confirmed the bodies were believed to be the remains of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

Iraqi and U.S. military officials said there were signs of torture on the bodies. "They were killed in a barbaric way," said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed of the Iraqi Defense Ministry.

Menchaca's uncle, Mario Vasquez, said military officials told him early Tuesday that the two soldiers had been beheaded, according to a report on the Web site of the Houston Chronicle.

A third soldier, identified as Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., died in a firefight that preceded the abduction. All three soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division and were guarding a canal bridge near their military camp.

To the consternation of U.S. officials, who are careful to withhold casualty details until soldiers' families can be notified, the deaths were first reported by Mohammed, the Iraqi defense official.

The investigation into the incident has been opened by Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, chief of day-to-day military operations in Iraq.

The circumstances of the initial attack remain mysterious. In a country where military vehicles — even the most heavily armed and impervious tanks — rarely leave fortified areas unless they are traveling in pairs, Caldwell confirmed Tuesday that the servicemen were alone.

They were 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.

The convoys generally include at least three vehicles — usually armored Humvees. If a convoy has more than four Humvees, often units will split into groups of two to patrol more area.

But a single Humvee patrol is not allowed.

In the case of the soldiers kidnapped Friday, a farmer later told The Associated Press that he saw insurgents swarm a U.S. checkpoint in a region south of Baghdad. The farmer said the insurgents managed to draw away two Humvees by firing on them. When they chased the attackers, the insurgents killed the driver of the third Humvee that stayed behind.

The Mujaheddin al-Shura Council, a collection of several insurgent groups including al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed in an Internet statement to have "slaughtered" the two soldiers, suggesting they were beheaded.

"We have good news coming straight from the battlefield to the nation of Islam," the group's statement read. "We satisfy your wrath by executing the sentence of God — which is slaughter — on those two crusader infidel prisoners."

The group, which had vowed revenge on U.S. forces after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this month, had on Monday claimed to have abducted the two privates.

After Iraqi officials disclosed that the bodies were found, the Shura Council posted another Web statement, saying al-Zarqawi's successor, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, had personally killed the soldiers.

Asked Tuesday if the Internet statements were credible, Caldwell responded: "Absolutely not," and added that based on preliminary analysis, there was no reason to believe the group's claims.

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.

"They did have to dismantle some stuff to get to them," Caldwell said.

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.

The two kidnapped soldiers were the first to be classified as "duty status and whereabouts unknown" since Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin, who remains missing after an attack on his convoy in April 2004. He appeared in a video made by insurgents, who later released another video purporting to show his execution. The military called the footage inconclusive. Eleven American civilians, most of them contractors, are also considered to be missing in the country, Caldwell said.

As of Tuesday, at least 2,507 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war, according to an Associated Press count. The Defense Department says 18,572 U.S. service members have been wounded.

Additional information from The Associated Press and The Washington Post