Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq    

    BAGHDAD, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military has identified the remains of its two soldiers kidnapped in Iraq in May 2007 after their patrol came under attack south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Saturday.

    The remains of Sgt. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pfc. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan, ere identified positively Thursday by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Dover in the United States, said a military statement.

    The two soldiers were abducted along with a third one, whose body was found by the Iraqi police in 2007 floating on Euphrates River, after an attack on their patrol on May 12, 2007 near the town of Mahmoudiyah. The attack also killed four other soldiers and one interpreter.

    The U.S. military launched a massive search operation and had offered a bounty of 200,000 U.S. dollars for information that hoped to bring back the missing soldiers safely.

    Al-Qaida group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack and abduction.

    Jimenez's and Fouty's remains were discovered Tuesday from a site located in the open desert west of Jurf as-Sakhr area to the south of Mahmoudiyah, the statement added.

    The area south of Baghdad, including Mahmoudiyah, was part of what was once known as the "Triangle of Death", a stronghold for al-Qaida Iraqi network.