9 held as Iraq search for missing soldiers widens

BAGHDAD, May 19 (Reuters) Nine people suspected of involvement in the abduction of three missing U S soldiers have been detained as a massive, week-long search for the missing servicemen widens, the U S military said today.

Thousands of US and Iraqi troops have been scouring farmlands through an area south of Baghdad known as the ''triangle of death'' since their ambush a week ago in which four U S soldiers and an Iraqi translator were also killed.

A U S military spokesman said the nine suspected of involvement in the kidnappings were detained during a raid on a building in Amiriya, a Sunni Arab stronghold 40 km west of Baghdad, early today.

The search had previously been focused in and around Mahmudiya, where the attack occurred last Saturday, and nearby Yusufiya, south of Baghdad.

Spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said more than 700 people had been held for ''tactical questioning'' since the search began. Of 11 people detained before Saturday, four had been identified as ''high-value targets'', Garver said.

''Obviously if they're persons of interest we put them in the detention system,'' Garver said.

The al Qaeda-led Islamic State in Iraq has mocked U.S.

forces searching for their comrades and warned them to call off the search in order to guarantee their safety.

The Sunni Arab militant group has not given any proof that the soldiers are alive or that it has them and has not issued any demands for their release.

The soldiers, part of a larger unit sent to intercept roadside bombers in a Sunni Arab militant stronghold, went missing after a coordinated ambush in what was one of the worst attacks on U S forces since the 2003 invasion.

The U S military has said evidence at the scene suggested the missing soldiers had put up a fight before they were captured.

U S President George W Bush has sent thousands of extra troops into Baghdad and other areas in a last-ditch bid to avoid all-out civil war between Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam Hussein, and majority Shi'ites.

The push is an effort to buy time for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to reach political benchmarks, set by Washington, aimed at promoting national reconciliation and encouraging Sunnis to remain in the political process.

REUTERS agl ht1650