Pentagon confirms 2 bodies found in Iraq -CNN

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) The Pentagon said today that two unidentified bodies were found south of Baghdad but did not confirm they were the US soldiers who were abducted by Iraqi insurgents late last week, CNN reported.

An Iraqi defence official said earlier the soldiers who went missing were killed and their bodies were found in an area south of Baghdad where a group linked to al Qaeda said it had abducted them.

The two bodies showed signs of torture, Fox News Channel reported, citing reports to Iraqi defence-ministry officials by civilians who had found the bodies. Fox said that according to the reports, ''there were marks of torture all over the bodies.'' Pvt Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, from Madras, Oregon, and Private Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, went missing at dusk on Friday after an ambush at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town south of Baghdad in an area considered an al Qaeda stronghold.

Maj William Wilhoute, spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq, told CNN he could not confirm whether the bodies that had been found were the two missing soldiers, and could not say whether the bodies had been tortured.

REUTERS KD VV1807