Video: 2 captured GIs are dead

WASHINGTON - An al Qaeda-affiliated group said yesterday in a videotape that two missing American soldiers captured last month south of Baghdad had been killed.

But in an unusual tactic for a group that often uses images to prove what it has done, the Islamic State of Iraq offered no evidence to back its claims. Instead, the video showed armed, hooded men allegedly planning the pre-dawn ambush that led to the soldiers' capture and, in the final frames of the 10-minute, 41-second video, some of the soldiers' personal items, including military-issued ID cards, credit cards and a cross.

The group said it had killed Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., because the military hadn't heeded its warnings to end its search for them.

U.S. military officials said the search for the missing men would continue. Friends and fellow soldiers said they believe that the soldiers are still alive.

"I am still not convinced right now," said Cathy Conger, 49, a Fouty family friend who said she had watched news reports of the videotape all day in the hopes of more information.

"Maybe they said that to get [the military] to back off the search," she said. "Maybe we were getting close."

Fouty, Jimenez and Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif., members of the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, N.Y., were captured when insurgents overran their observation post outside the city of Mahmoudiya early on May 12. Four other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack.

Anzack's body was found May 23 floating in the Euphrates River.

Military officials in Baghdad and in Washington said they had many reasons not to view the tape as proof that the missing men are dead, not the least of which is that it didn't show the men's bodies.

The families and neighbors of the men also held out hope yesterday. Fouty's stepfather, Gordon Dibler, of Oxford, Mich., said the military told him Saturday that the video showed personal-identification items from the soldiers.

"We're praying, and so far, we don't know for certain that they aren't alive," he said.

Francisco Urena, the veteran-services director in Jimenez's hometown of Lawrence, said people in town remained hopeful despite the video.

"I have received about two dozen phone calls from private citizens wanting to know the latest on this news and offer the family their support," he said.

"The city seems to be united in such a unique and tragic experience that we have been going through."

The U.S. military yesterday reported no deaths of GIs in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported, Iraqi authorities said at least 15 people were killed yesterday in eight bombings, shootings and other incidents. Also, at least 47 bodies were discovered nationwide, apparent victims of sectarian or political killings; they included 28 bullet-ridden bodies in Baghdad, most handcuffed, blindfolded and showing signs of torture. *