Baghdad, Iraq – 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 traveling alone outside a fortified Army camp when they were abducted.
A group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq took responsibility for killing the servicemen, whose corpses were found near an electrical plant in Youssifiyah, where they had disappeared Friday night.
Iraqi and U.S. military officials said there were signs of torture on the bodies.
“They were killed in a barbaric way,” said Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed of the Iraqi Defense Ministry.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell confirmed 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 cause of death and to “do DNA testing to confirm that it is in fact them.”
A third soldier, identified as Spec. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., died in a firefight that preceded the abduction.
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 the so-called Triangle of Death.
The circumstances of the initial attack remain mysterious.
In a country where military vehicles – even the most heavily armed and impervious tanks – rarely leave fortified areas unless they are traveling in pairs, Caldwell confirmed Tuesday that the servicemen were alone.
“We know that there was a single vehicle with three American soldiers when they came under attack,” Caldwell said.
The investigation into the circumstances of their capture has been opened by Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, chief of day-to-day military operations in Iraq.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, posted a message Tuesday on a jihadist Internet site taking responsibility for the killings but offered no proof of its involvement.
“We have good news coming straight from the battlefield to the nation of Islam,” read the statement. “We satisfy your wrath by executing the sentence of God – which is slaughter – on those two crusader infidel prisoners.”
Caldwell said U.S. troops found the bodies Monday night but did not immediately recover them, fearing that insurgents may have booby-trapped the area with explosives.
U.S. troops kept watch over the bodies until dawn, when they were able to bring in an explosives team and remove the remains to a military base.
Tuesday night, the bodies were on a plane en route to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
News of the discoveries hit the soldiers’ families hard.
Menchaca’s uncle, Ken Mac Kenzie, went on NBC’s “Today” show to blame the U.S. government for reacting too slowly to his nephew’s capture and said the military should have agreed to offer $100 million and detainees in return for the soldiers’ lives.
There has been no public demand for any ransom in the case, and U.S. policy prohibits striking deals with hostage takers on the premise that it would encourage more kidnappings.
Kay Fristad, a spokeswoman for the Oregon National Guard, said Tucker’s relatives were still waiting for DNA testing.
“The family isn’t watching the news reports, so they don’t yet know what’s been reported about the conditions of the bodies,” Fristad said. “That’s something they may have to face later.”
