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THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
U.S. Investigates GIs' 'Barbaric' Slayings in Iraq
Bodies of two soldiers who had disappeared show signs of torture. The military wants to know why their vehicle was traveling alone.
By Solomon Moore, Times Staff Writer
June 21, 2006
BAGHDAD As the mutilated bodies of two American soldiers were flown to the United States in flag-draped coffins Tuesday night, the U.S. military launched a top-level investigation to determine why their vehicle had been alone outside a fortified Army camp when they were abducted.
An Al Qaeda-affiliated group took responsibility for killing the servicemen, whose corpses were found southwest of Baghdad near an electrical plant in Yousifiya, where they had disappeared Friday night.
Iraqi and U.S. military officials said the bodies showed signs of torture. "They were killed in a barbaric way," said Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed Jassim of the Defense Ministry.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV confirmed that the bodies were believed to be the remains of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. Caldwell said the military would conduct a complete autopsy to determine the causes of death and to "do DNA testing to confirm that it is in fact them."
A third soldier, identified as Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass. died in a battle that preceded the abduction of Menchaca and Tucker. All three soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division and were guarding a canal bridge near their military camp.
In Washington, the suggestion that the soldiers' bodies were mutilated brought a strong emotional undercurrent to the debate over the Iraq war.
Two weeks ago, President Bush hailed the U.S. military attack resulting in the death of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi as an opportunity to "turn the tide" of the war, and days later he made a congratulatory trip to Baghdad to meet with the new government.
Although careful at first not to describe Zarqawi's death June 7 as a major step, Bush administration officials grew bolder in the days that followed. Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, described Al Qaeda in Iraq's pledge to retaliate as "rhetoric" that indicated the organization had been badly damaged. On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated his controversial view, first expressed a year earlier, that the insurgency was in its "last throes."
The brutal killings of the U.S. soldiers came as other violence in Iraq continued largely unabated, and unsettling television reports throughout the day affected senators in Washington debating proposals for possible troop withdrawals.
"At this point, we've lost over 2,500 of our best and bravest under terrible circumstances, and this latest report is just heartbreaking," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said. "The American troops, God bless them, are doing everything they're asked to do, but to be out there as just sitting targets for this sectarian violence, this civil war, this insurgency, it's just unacceptable. It is time for us to start talking about American troops coming home and the Iraqis accepting responsibility for their own future."
Bush, who was in Vienna to meet with European counterparts, did not address the killings of the soldiers. But top aides deplored their deaths...
