US troops find ID cards of missing soldiers in Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 16 (Reuters) US troops found the identity cards of two U.S. soldiers missing for nearly a month in a raid on an al Qaeda safe house north of Baghdad, the US military said today.

The cards were shown in an al Qaeda Web video posted on June 4 in which the Sunni Islamist group said it had killed the two soldiers.

The US military said no one was found in the house.

The cards belonged to Specialist Alex Jimenez and Private Byron Fouty. Jimenez and Fouty were abducted along with a third soldier, whose body has since been found, after an attack on their patrol in Yusufiya south of Baghdad on May 12.

Four US soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed in the attack.

The US military has launched a massive hunt to find the two missing soldiers. It said the raid on the house in Samarra north of Baghdad took place on June 9.

US troops converging on the building came under fire from gunmen in a nearby tree line and two soldiers were wounded. The military said the troops called in air strikes.

Along with the identity cards, rifles and ammunition, soldiers also discovered computers and video production equipment, suggesting the al Qaeda video may have been shot in the house.

The body of the third kidnapped soldier, Private First Class Joseph Anzack Jr., was pulled from the Euphrates River 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad on May 23.

Iraqi police said the body, wearing US Army-issue pants and boots, had bullet wounds and bore signs of torture.

REUTERS GT RN2100