Al Qaeda confesses to kidnapping troops

CNN:

An al Qaeda-affiliated group on Monday claimed it kidnapped two U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad, although the captives were not named.

The group -- Mujahedeen Shura Council -- made the unverified claim in a statement posted on a Web site. It did not post images or video of the soldiers as it has in the past.

The statement said, "the strongest army in the world is turned around, ashamed of their failure [to find the soldiers] and we will give you more information on the incident in the following days." (Watch how witnesses saw soldiers taken away -- 2:54)

On Sunday night, the Army identified two soldiers who went missing after an attack on an area checkpoint Friday as Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas.

A third soldier, Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was killed in the attack.

The group also said it is holding four Russian diplomats hostage and demanded Moscow withdraw troops from Chechnya, Russia, and "release all our brothers and sisters" from prison within 48 hours.

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Now there is a realistic demand. This smacks of desperation to do something that will show they are stil a factor after losing their leader. They will definitely get attention from the 101st Airborne. I expect a relentless search until the troops are found. It is very likely that there will be few al Qaeda survivors of this search who will remain at large.

Update: This AP story indicates my analysis is alread being proven true.

The U.S. military said Monday that seven American troops have been wounded, three insurgents have been killed and 34 detained during an intensive search for two missing American soldiers.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles and dive teams had been deployed to find the two men. The men went missing Friday during an attack on their checkpoint in the volatile Sunni area south of Baghdad that left one of their comrades dead.

"We have surged intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and employed planes, boats, helicopters and UAVs to ensure the most thorough search possible on the ground, in the air and in the water," Caldwell said in a statement issued Monday.

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That area is going to get more attention than it ever would have gotten without this kidnapping. It will result in more enemy being found along with more of their weapons caches.