Search for Missing Troops Continues Despite Threats

U.S. and Iraqi forces are continuing their search for three missing American soldiers, despite threats from the Sunni insurgent coalition that claims to have taken them as hostages. Some 4,000 troops along with helicopters, jets and unmanned aerial vehicles are involved in the effort. The Pentagon said on Monday that it believed the soldiers had fallen into enemy hands.

AP via Yahoo:

U.S. and Iraqi troops — backed by dog teams — searched vehicles and pedestrians. Other teams peered into crawl spaces and probed for possible secret chambers in homes.

On Monday, the Islamic State of Iraq — an al-Qaida front group that has claimed to have captured the soldiers — warned the U.S. to halt its search by about 4,000 troops, and the Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that it believes the soldiers are in terrorist hands.

Last June, al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the deaths of two U.S. soldiers whose mutilated bodies were later found in the same area where a weekend ambush had occurred.

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