Troops search for missing peers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An Iraqi farmer said Sunday that he saw seven heavily armed gunmen capture two American soldiers during an attack on a road checkpoint south of Baghdad, while U.S. troops searched for their comrades for a second day.

Another Iraqi said the Americans were offering $100,000 for information leading to the abductors, but the U.S. command denied that.

The Defense Department identified the missing men as Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. It said Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. The three were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

The White House promised to do everything it could to find the soldiers and said it had a message for anybody who may have taken the two men: “Give them back.”

Gunmen, meanwhile, kidnapped 10 bakery workers in Baghdad, and a mortar attack killed four people in the capital. Police also found 17 bodies around the city, including four women and a teenager handcuffed and shot in the head – apparently the latest victims of sectarian death squads.

While suffering the new blows to his effort to restore security in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed ahead with negotiations on a plan for reconciling the country’s ethnic and religious communities.

But his proposal, which would include a limited pardon for insurgents according to a draft obtained by the Associated Press, has been snarled by stark differences on that issue among the various groups, legislators said Sunday.

U.S. troops, backed by helicopters and warplanes, fanned out across the “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad searching for the two missing servicemen.

Ahmed Khalaf Falah, the farmer who said he witnessed the abduction of the Americans on Friday, said three Humvees were manning a U.S. checkpoint near Youssifiyah, about 12 miles south of Baghdad, when they came under fire from many directions.

Two Humvees chased after the assailants, but the third was attacked before it could move, he said. Seven masked gunmen, including one carrying what appeared to be a heavy machine gun, killed the driver of the third vehicle, then took the other two soldiers captive, Falah said.

Falah said tensions were high in the area as U.S. troops raided some houses and detained men while looking for the missing soldiers. He said the Americans were setting up checkpoints on all roads leading into the area of the attack and helicopters were hovering at low altitudes.

Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi troops met little resistance as they established new outposts in southern Ramadi in an operation aimed at denying supplies to insurgents in Iraq’s biggest Sunni Arab city.