Iraqi police body of missing US soldier found

HILLA, Iraq, May 23 (Reuters) The half-naked body of one of three missing US soldiers was found today in the Euphrates River in the town of Mussayab south of Baghdad, police said.

The US military said it was investigating reports that a body had been found in a canal in the area.

Hilla police spokesman Captain Muthanna al-Maamouri said there were bullet wounds to the torso and head of the body, which was wearing US Army-issue pants and boots and had a tattoo on the left arm.

Maamouri said the body had been turned over to US forces.

Thousands of US and Iraqi troops have been scouring farmlands through an area south of Baghdad known as the ''triangle of death'' since an ambush on May 12 in which four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed.

Three soldiers were reported missing after the attack. The al Qaeda-led Islamic State in Iraq has said it abducted them but has given no proof it has them.

A police officer in Mussayab, 60 km south of Baghdad, who declined to be named, said the body had been found after a tip-off from residents.

''The military is investigating reports of a body of a canal but we have no confirmation yet,'' a US military official in Baghdad said.

General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, said last Friday that he believes at least two of the three missing soldiers are still alive.

REUTERS DS RK1440