Iraq: Jordanian responsible for killing US soldiers dies
A Jordanian who was responsible for slaughtering two US soldiers last month was fatally wounded in a clash with security forces, a senior Iraqi official said today.
Diyar Ismail Mahmoud, known as Abu al-Afghani, was identified as the killer of the two soldiers, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told reporters.
The two soldiers’ mutilated bodies were found after they were taken prisoner following a clash near Youssifiyah.
A third American was killed in the clash.
Al-Rubaie did not say when Mahmoud was wounded or when he died.
The bodies of two soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division were found on June 19 not far from a checkpoint on the Euphrates river south of Baghdad, where they were abducted.
The discovery of Pfc Kristian Menchaca of Houston, Texas, and Pfc Thomas Tucker of Madras, Oregon, both of whom were badly mutilated and at least one beheaded, came after exhaustive searches with thousands of soldiers fanning out in an area south of Baghdad known as the “Triangle of Death” because of frequent attacks.
A third soldier, David Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was found dead at the checkpoint where the soldiers were killed two days before.
The three were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the same unit as five soldiers and one former army private who face charges in the alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl in Mahmoudiya last March.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella of extremist groups, claimed in an internet statement that the three soldiers were killed last month in retaliation for the rape and murder.
US officials say they have no evidence to substantiate the claim.
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