Naseer Al-Nahr • Asharq Al-Awsat

BAGHDAD, 29 June 2003 — US forces in Iraq recovered the bodies of two soldiers missing for three days after apparently being abducted, the military said yesterday, while a separate attack left one soldier dead and four wounded.

The bodies of the two soldiers were found around 35 km northwest of Baghdad, near where they went missing on Wednesday, Lt. Col. Martin Compton told AFP, without elaborating.

The discovery came after the latest in a series of anti-US attacks in which one soldier was killed when the convoy he was in was ambushed in Baghdad late on Friday, spokesman Sgt. Ist Class Patrick Compton said.

An Iraqi translator was also injured in the ambush, he said. It followed a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Fallujah, the flash point town, which according to witnesses destroyed a US armored vehicle.

There were no reports of US casualties in that attack. Almost daily attacks and the rising death toll prompted US Secretary of State Colin Powell to urge Americans to be patient, while the tactics used by former Baathist militia showed worrying signs of diversifying.

US soldiers patrolling the country have regularly been targeted by snipers, gunmen and attackers using rocket-propelled grenades, but the apparent abduction of two soldiers further added to the climate of insecurity.

The soldiers went missing in Saddam Hussein’s former heartland north of Baghdad.

Three people had been arrested in connection with their apparent abduction, the military said Friday.

Coalition forces meanwhile announced that they had detained more loyalists of Saddam Hussein. “In the last week, we have detained more than 900 former regime loyalists, former Fedayeen and other criminals that are out there subverting our efforts,” a senior coalition military official said, asking not to be named. He said some of those arrested had been released, but did not specify how many remained in detention.

“Under Operation Desert Scorpion, we continue to conduct raids as we get intelligence to be able to take down these subversive elements that remain,” he added.

“We are suffering casualties... the war hasn’t ended... but these casualties that we are encountering are not causing us to falter in any way,” he added.

Another US military spokesman, speaking before the two soldiers were found dead, refused to concede that attacks on US troops were intensifying, after a week in which 11 British and US soldiers were killed.

“I think it’s probably too early to tell if we’re seeing an increase,” Maj. William Thurmond said, adding that some attacks may have been a reaction to the Desert Scorpion campaign to wipe out remnants of the ousted regime.

Meanwhile, British troops moved back into the Iraqi town of Al-Majar Al-Kabir, where six of their comrades were shot dead during clashes with the local population, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.

British forces in Iraq said that while their priority was to win back the hearts and minds of local people, they would also seek to catch those responsible for the killings.