thedrifter
05-15-07, 07:24 PM
Missing, killed Fort Drum soldiers identified
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 15, 2007 19:43:34 EDT
The fate of three 10th Mountain Division soldiers abducted Saturday in an ambush south of Baghdad that left four U.S. soldiers dead remains unknown. A massive search to find them continued Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the names of three of those killed in the ambush as well as four soldiers listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown.
Those killed were Pfc. Daniel W. Courneya, 19, of Nashville, Mich.; Sgt. 1st Class James D. Connell Jr., 40, of Lake City, Tenn.; and Pfc. Christopher E. Murphy, 21, of Lynchburg, Va.
Those missing are Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev.; Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.; and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. The Pentagon said one of those four was among the dead, but it could not confirm which one.
The soldiers are members of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, and had been in Iraq since August, according to the Army.
An al-Qaida front group that claims it has the soldiers issued a statement Monday warning the U.S. military to stop searching for them, and suggested it launched the attack on the soldiers’ convoy to seek retribution for a rape and murder that took place there more than a year ago.
About 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft, intelligence units and Iraqi forces have been scouring the farming area around Mahmudiyah and the nearby town of Yusifiyah for the missing soldiers.
Coalition troops are using search dogs, trucks with speakers, unmanned aerial vehicles, law enforcement advisers and thousands of leaflets have been dropped requesting information leading to the return of the soldiers. The leaflets list telephone numbers for tip lines, and the information given is routed to units in the area.
“We will continue to search for our missing soldiers until we get them back,” said Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Garver in a phone interview from Baghdad. “We’re conducting the search in hopes for the best, that we get all three of them back safe and can return them to their families alive.”
Four U.S. soldiers from 4-31 Infantry and one Iraqi soldier were killed in the attack, which took place 12 miles west of Mahmudiyah, a town in an area south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death. The site is a few miles from where another deadly ambush and abduction occurred almost a year ago, in which three soldiers were killed.
The town is also the site of the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl and the killing of her family at the hands of U.S. soldiers in March 2006. Three soldiers have pleaded guilty in that case.
“We have been conducting day and night foot patrols searching anything from houses to fields,” Sgt. Monte Robertson, a 4-31 team leader said in a press release from 3rd Infantry Division headquarters, to which the 2nd Brigade is assigned in Iraq. “I know they are out there and they deserve to be brought home. I hope for the best and that they are found soon.”
The 3rd ID release said soldiers have been talking with Iraqi citizens and passing out reward flyers for any information leading to the missing soldiers.
For some, like Spc. Stephen Brininger, the search is an emotional one.
“Honestly, this makes me upset,” said Brininger, a personal security detachment gunner with 2nd BCT, according to the release. He knew two of the soldiers who were killed. Taking a deep breath, he said, “We just really need to find these guys. … We need to find them.”
The Army has released some details of the attack, but information on the ongoing search-and-rescue operation is limited.
According to a video statement released Monday by Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a unit of coalition forces positioned west of Mahmudiyah heard explosions at 4:44 a.m. Saturday.
After failing to make contact with all but one of their observation posts, one occupied by seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier, the unit requested unmanned aerial vehicle support, which, 15 minutes later, returned images of two burning vehicles.
Two units were dispatched to the scene and were delayed because they discovered bombs planted on the roadway.
Caldwell’s statement did not say whether the explosives were detonated. Responders got to the vehicles almost an hour later and begin a search.
Around 8 a.m., Caldwell said, the deaths of five soldiers were confirmed. Four were located in their Humvees and one soldier’s body was found “a short distance from the unit’s original location.”
“Saturday evening we confirmed that two of the bodies found in the Humvees were American soldiers,” Caldwell’s statement said.
“We are making every effort to identify the fourth American so that we can properly notify the families as to the status of their loved ones,” Caldwell said.
“At this time we believe they were abducted by terrorists belonging to al-Qaida or an affiliated group and this assessment is based on highly credible intelligence information,” he said.
In the Web statement, direct reference was made to the March 2006 rape and murder in Mahmudiyah.
“What you are doing in searching for your soldiers will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches. Your soldiers are in our hands. If you want their safety, do not look for them,” the Islamic State of Iraq said on a militant Web site.
“You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area,” the statement said, referring to five American soldiers who were charged in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killings of her parents and her younger sister last year, the AP report said.
“We’ve seen the press reporting of the statement. I can’t tell you whether or not it’s true because they lie ... they lie in their statements, they lie in their videos,” Garver said. “Our intelligence indicates that it is an al-Qaida or al-Qaida-affiliated group that is currently holding our soldiers.”
A spokesman for 2nd BCT, which has been working in the area south of Baghdad since last year, said in the 3rd ID release that they are undaunted by the captors’ alleged statements.
“We are not calling off the search,” said Maj. Web Wright. “As Major General Caldwell has emphasized, we will never leave a fallen comrade. No matter how long it takes, we will bring our soldiers home. We’re leveraging everything we have into this fight, and we’re going to bring them back.”
Since the start of operations in Iraq in March 2003, several soldiers have gone missing.
In addition to the most recent three who are unaccounted for, two others are still missing.
Spc. Ahmed Altaie, 41, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was forcibly taken by masked gunmen in a Baghdad neighborhood Oct. 23. He was unaccompanied outside the fortified Green Zone at the home of his Iraqi wife and hasn’t been heard from or seen since.
Staff Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, 23, of Batavia, Ohio disappeared during an ambush attack on a fuel convoy outside Baghdad on April 9, 2004.
Maupin and Altaie are listed by the Army as missing/captured.
............
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ellie
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 15, 2007 19:43:34 EDT
The fate of three 10th Mountain Division soldiers abducted Saturday in an ambush south of Baghdad that left four U.S. soldiers dead remains unknown. A massive search to find them continued Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the names of three of those killed in the ambush as well as four soldiers listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown.
Those killed were Pfc. Daniel W. Courneya, 19, of Nashville, Mich.; Sgt. 1st Class James D. Connell Jr., 40, of Lake City, Tenn.; and Pfc. Christopher E. Murphy, 21, of Lynchburg, Va.
Those missing are Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev.; Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.; and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. The Pentagon said one of those four was among the dead, but it could not confirm which one.
The soldiers are members of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, and had been in Iraq since August, according to the Army.
An al-Qaida front group that claims it has the soldiers issued a statement Monday warning the U.S. military to stop searching for them, and suggested it launched the attack on the soldiers’ convoy to seek retribution for a rape and murder that took place there more than a year ago.
About 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft, intelligence units and Iraqi forces have been scouring the farming area around Mahmudiyah and the nearby town of Yusifiyah for the missing soldiers.
Coalition troops are using search dogs, trucks with speakers, unmanned aerial vehicles, law enforcement advisers and thousands of leaflets have been dropped requesting information leading to the return of the soldiers. The leaflets list telephone numbers for tip lines, and the information given is routed to units in the area.
“We will continue to search for our missing soldiers until we get them back,” said Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Garver in a phone interview from Baghdad. “We’re conducting the search in hopes for the best, that we get all three of them back safe and can return them to their families alive.”
Four U.S. soldiers from 4-31 Infantry and one Iraqi soldier were killed in the attack, which took place 12 miles west of Mahmudiyah, a town in an area south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death. The site is a few miles from where another deadly ambush and abduction occurred almost a year ago, in which three soldiers were killed.
The town is also the site of the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl and the killing of her family at the hands of U.S. soldiers in March 2006. Three soldiers have pleaded guilty in that case.
“We have been conducting day and night foot patrols searching anything from houses to fields,” Sgt. Monte Robertson, a 4-31 team leader said in a press release from 3rd Infantry Division headquarters, to which the 2nd Brigade is assigned in Iraq. “I know they are out there and they deserve to be brought home. I hope for the best and that they are found soon.”
The 3rd ID release said soldiers have been talking with Iraqi citizens and passing out reward flyers for any information leading to the missing soldiers.
For some, like Spc. Stephen Brininger, the search is an emotional one.
“Honestly, this makes me upset,” said Brininger, a personal security detachment gunner with 2nd BCT, according to the release. He knew two of the soldiers who were killed. Taking a deep breath, he said, “We just really need to find these guys. … We need to find them.”
The Army has released some details of the attack, but information on the ongoing search-and-rescue operation is limited.
According to a video statement released Monday by Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a unit of coalition forces positioned west of Mahmudiyah heard explosions at 4:44 a.m. Saturday.
After failing to make contact with all but one of their observation posts, one occupied by seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier, the unit requested unmanned aerial vehicle support, which, 15 minutes later, returned images of two burning vehicles.
Two units were dispatched to the scene and were delayed because they discovered bombs planted on the roadway.
Caldwell’s statement did not say whether the explosives were detonated. Responders got to the vehicles almost an hour later and begin a search.
Around 8 a.m., Caldwell said, the deaths of five soldiers were confirmed. Four were located in their Humvees and one soldier’s body was found “a short distance from the unit’s original location.”
“Saturday evening we confirmed that two of the bodies found in the Humvees were American soldiers,” Caldwell’s statement said.
“We are making every effort to identify the fourth American so that we can properly notify the families as to the status of their loved ones,” Caldwell said.
“At this time we believe they were abducted by terrorists belonging to al-Qaida or an affiliated group and this assessment is based on highly credible intelligence information,” he said.
In the Web statement, direct reference was made to the March 2006 rape and murder in Mahmudiyah.
“What you are doing in searching for your soldiers will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches. Your soldiers are in our hands. If you want their safety, do not look for them,” the Islamic State of Iraq said on a militant Web site.
“You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area,” the statement said, referring to five American soldiers who were charged in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killings of her parents and her younger sister last year, the AP report said.
“We’ve seen the press reporting of the statement. I can’t tell you whether or not it’s true because they lie ... they lie in their statements, they lie in their videos,” Garver said. “Our intelligence indicates that it is an al-Qaida or al-Qaida-affiliated group that is currently holding our soldiers.”
A spokesman for 2nd BCT, which has been working in the area south of Baghdad since last year, said in the 3rd ID release that they are undaunted by the captors’ alleged statements.
“We are not calling off the search,” said Maj. Web Wright. “As Major General Caldwell has emphasized, we will never leave a fallen comrade. No matter how long it takes, we will bring our soldiers home. We’re leveraging everything we have into this fight, and we’re going to bring them back.”
Since the start of operations in Iraq in March 2003, several soldiers have gone missing.
In addition to the most recent three who are unaccounted for, two others are still missing.
Spc. Ahmed Altaie, 41, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was forcibly taken by masked gunmen in a Baghdad neighborhood Oct. 23. He was unaccompanied outside the fortified Green Zone at the home of his Iraqi wife and hasn’t been heard from or seen since.
Staff Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, 23, of Batavia, Ohio disappeared during an ambush attack on a fuel convoy outside Baghdad on April 9, 2004.
Maupin and Altaie are listed by the Army as missing/captured.
............
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ellie