Insurgent Tape Claims U.S. Soldiers Were Killed But Provides No Proof

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June 04, 2007 6:07 PM

An insurgent tape released on the Internet today claims, but provides no evidence, that the two missing U.S. soldiers were killed in supposed retaliation for the massive search the U.S. has been conducting for them.

The insurgent video starts with what it says was planning for last month's ambush on May 12. Several dark scenes follow of what the group says was the actual attack on two U.S. Army humvees that killed five others.

There are no pictures of the soldiers' bodies, but the military ID cards of the two missing soldiers are shown: Pvt. Byron Fouty of Michigan on the left and Spc. Alex Jimenez of Massachusetts on the right.

"The men were living prisoners but became dead bodies," the narrator says.

It was a painful development for the mother of Spc. Jimenez, who told reporters she is still praying for her son.

The stepfather of Pvt. Fouty said he had been told of the tape over the weekend.

Watch the Video With the Missing U.S. Soldiers' IDs

"We're praying that it is a sign that since we didn't physically see them that these are just items," Gordon Dibler told ABC News. "I did see the picture. That is Byron's picture."

Thousands of soldiers had conducted a massive search for the two men, which the insurgents say is the reason Pvt. Fouty and Spc. Jimenez were killed.

They may have survived, the narrator says on the tape, if the U.S. had not had its soldiers conduct a futile, useless search.

"It's obviously sad when any American soldier is killed, but I think, in one respect, this operation shows the strength of the American military," ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, who was a former White House counterterrorism official, said. "The Iraqi insurgents are afraid to hold American troops hostage."

The insurgent narrator says the bodies of the two soldiers have been buried so that the U.S. will not be able to find them.

A spokesman for the U.S. military says the search for the two missing U.S. soldiers is not over.

"We are further analyzing the video, however it doesn't appear to contain any definitive evidence indicating the status of our missing Soldiers," said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner.  "We continue to search and hope that our two missing Soldiers will be found alive and in good health."

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