Missing Troops in Iraq

SEARCH FOR MISSING SOLDIERS CONTINUES
5/16/2007

BAGHDAD - Coalition and Iraqi Forces have been working around the clock since a pre-dawn attack Saturday that left one Iraqi and four U.S. Soldiers dead and three other U.S. Soldiers missing.

Every asset has been brought to bear in the hunt for the missing troops, who belong to Multi-National Division-Center, including search dogs, trucks with speakers, unmanned aerial vehicles, law enforcement advisers, and both U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Personnel monitoring Iraqi tip call-in lines have also been busy. Thousands of leaflets were dropped requesting information leading to the return of the Soldiers. The leaflets list telephone numbers for tip lines, and the information given is routed to units in the area.

Maj. Kenny Mintz, a native of San Diego, Calif., and the brigade operations officer for the 2nd BCT, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), out of Fort Drum, N.Y., said the 2nd BCT's participation in the search for the Soldiers is continuing by all available means.

"Right now our focus is on searching for the missing Soldiers, and we're trying to isolate the areas where we think they could be," Mintz said. "The (captors) don't have freedom of movement; if they have the Soldiers, they can't move them from where they are. We're doing a deliberate search of the areas for the people responsible for the Soldiers we're looking for."
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, was the first to speak about the incident.

"Make no mistake," Caldwell said Saturday. "We will never stop looking for our Soldiers until their status is definitely determined."

If you have information about this or other crimes, please contact the Baghdad Tips Hotline by phone at 0790-1737723 or by e-mail at baghdadtipshotline@yahoo.com.

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SOLDIERS CONDUCTING SEARCH OPERATIONS - B ROLL TROOPS LOOK FOR MISSING COMRADES SOUTH OF BAGHDAD
Release Date:
5/16/2007

BAGHDAD - Video 'B-Roll' of search operations for three missing U.S. Soldiers from missions conducted May 13-14, is available upon request from the Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) by calling (678) 421-6604 or by accessing the DVIDS Web site at www.dvidshub.net.

The footage includes troops from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment from Fort Lewis, Wash., as they make their way south from Baghdad to search for the three missing Soldiers. The B-Roll also includes Soldiers conducting cordon and search operations while they search homes, vehicles and fields in the Yusifiyah and Mahmudiyah areas

FOR QUERIES REGARDING THIS RELEASE, CONTACT MULT-NATIONAL DIVISION - BAGHDAD PUBLIC AFFAIRS, MAJOR STEVEN LAMB BY E-MAIL AT STEVEN.LAMB@MND-B.ARMY.MIL; OR BY PHONE AT COMMERCIAL (914) 822-8174 OR IRAQNA 011-964-890-192-4674.

FOR B-ROLL PLEASE CONTACT THE DIGITAL VIDEO AND IMAGERY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM BY CALLING (678) 421-6604 OR ACCESS THEM ON-LINE AT http://www.dvidshub.net/ FILE://WWW.DVIDSHUB.NET.