The above is from Ravi Nessman's "Iraqi Police Find Body of Man in U.S. Uniform" (AP) and Ginger noted. We'll come back to in a moment, but let's note that in the New York Times this morning the Caves (Damien and Diana) offer up "As Comrades Search, Fatal Bomb Wreaks Havoc" which makes the front page:
The ground exploded under an ashen sky at dawn. Dust, dirt, blood and military equipment filled the air, clearing after several seconds to reveal a frenzied scene of horror.
[. . .]
The bomb was the third planted away from a road that the soldiers had discovered since May 12, when they began searching for three soldiers from their unit who had been captured after an ambush that left four Americans and an Iraqi soldier dead.
After the attack on Saturday, the reality of the threat set in: the fields they had been crossing on foot for months might now be as dangerous as the roads they had learned to avoid. What they had just witnessed -- a homemade land mine, or what the military calls a dismounted improvised explosive device -- could be anywhere.
Back to Ginger's highlight. That's from AOL's main page and she wants it noted that although Dancing With Stars, elderly drivers and much more make the main headlines with the photos the AP story is reduced to a buried headline with four others (none of which have photos) including "Town Fires Four Workers For Gossiping." It's day twelve since 3 US soldiers went missing and the AOL/Time/Warner/Disney/ABC/KY Jelly believes the news that a corpse in a US military uniform being found is equal to four workers being fired somewhere for gossiping. Clearly when you traffic in gossips as the conglomerate does, the thought that anyone could be reprimanded for such a thing hits very close to home.
Lloyd notes Howard Schneider and Sudarsan Raghavan's "U.S. Investigating Body Found in Euphrates" (Washington Post):
U.S. officials are examining the body of a man that Iraqi police found in the Euphrates River this morning and believe to be one of three missing American soldiers.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, confirmed in a briefing that the body had been turned over to U.S. officials. In a briefing in Baghdad, Caldwell said U.S. officials had not yet been able to identify the body, but were working to determine if it is one of the three soldiers abducted May 12 after an ambush near Mahmoudiya.
Iraqi police patrols found and recovered the body from the Euphrates River near Musayib, a village 45 miles south of Baghdad, and about 20 miles further south from where the abduction occurred, said Captain Muthana Ahmad, spokesman for the police in Babil province.
The body was clad in what appeared to be an American military uniform, and American military boots, said Ahmad. The body had tattoos on the left arm. The head was disfigured beyond recognition, apparently from gunshots to the head and chest, he added.
Caldwell said that if the body is confirmed to be that of one of the missing soldiers, officials would want to notify family members before making the information public.
And Reuters notes:
Nine U.S. soldiers were killed in five separate attacks across Iraq over the past 48 hours, most of them by roadside bombs, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
In the worst single attack, three soldiers were killed and two were wounded when their patrol was hit by "multiple improvised explosive devices" 5 km (3 miles) south of Baghdad on Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said.
ICCC's current count for the total number of US service members who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war is 3431.
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the new york times
damien cave
sudarsan raghavan
the washington post
