Special report:Tension escalates in Iraq

U.S. spokesman Major General William Caldwell speaks to reporters at a press conference in Baghdad. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    CAIRO, May 13 (Xinhua) -- A group affiliated to al-Qaida in Iraq said on Sunday in an Islamic Website that the missing U.S. soldiers were in their hand for now.

    In a statement posted on the Website, the group self-called Islamic State in Iraq said that it has been holding the "crusader" soldiers since the attack against the U.S. patrol south of Baghdad on Saturday.

    But the group failed to offer any tangible proof for its claim, only said that it would made public the details of the "blessed" operation as soon as they are available.

    The U.S. army has been engaged in searching work for three missing soldiers, who disappeared after a deadly ambush on their patrol, which also claimed lives of five other U.S. soldiers.

    Related:

    Five U.S. soldiers killed, three missing in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military said that five of its soldiers were killed and three others went missing after an attack on their patrol in south of Baghdad on predawn Saturday.

    The incident took place at 4:44 a.m. (0044 GMT) when insurgents attacked a patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in an area 20 km west of Mahmoudiyah town, said a statement, from Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.  Full text

    U.S. military still hunting for three missing soldiers

    BAGHDAD, May 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. and Iraqi soldiers backed by aircraft were still hunting for three American soldiers who went missing after an attack on U.S. soldiers in area south of Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

    "We will make every effort available to find our three missing soldiers," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said in a news conference. Full text

    Up to 50 people killed in suicide truck bombing in N Iraq

    BAGHDAD, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Up to 50 people were killed and 115 others injured in a suicide truck bomb attack on a Kurdish party headquarters in the northern Iraqi town of Makhmour on Sunday, Kurdish senior official said.

    "Our latest report said that 50 people were killed and 115 others injured, some of them are in critical conditions," Ziyan Uthman, Health Minister of the Kurdish autonomous government told Xinhua by telephone. Full text

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