Two abducted US soldiers found dead in Iraq
The bodies of two US soldiers kidnapped south of Baghdad before being tortured and killed were recovered, and an insurgent group led by Al-Qaeda in Iraq said it had slit their throats.

"Coalition forces have recovered what we believe are the remains of our soldiers, who disappeared in the vicinity of Yusifiyah," US-led coalition forces spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters.

"Their remains have been transported to a coalition base today and will be transported to the US for a positive DNA verification and for an autopsy to see how they died."

Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Thomas L. Tucker, 25, went missing Friday night after they came under attack at a traffic control point near Yusifiyah, an insurgent-stronghold along the Euphrates River.

One soldier was killed in the attack.

The US military launched a massive hunt for the pair involving nearly 8,000 troops. Caldwell said one US soldier was killed and 12 others wounded during the search operation.

"Coalition forces spotted the bodies last night but could not recover them immediately as the area was dangerous. So they brought in more troops and secured the area and recovered the remains this morning," Caldwell said.

UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter readying to take to the air ©AFP/US Army-HO - Spc. Charles W. GillHe refused to say whether Menchaca and Tucker had been brutally tortured as indicated earlier by General Abdul Aziz Mohammed of the Iraqi defense ministry.

"The two US soldiers were found in the Yusifiyah area near the power station and unfortunately their bodies show that they had been tortured and then killed viciously," the general told a news conference.

In an Internet message, the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an Al-Qaeda in Iraq-led insurgent coalition, said it had executed the two soldiers.

"We announce good news to the Islamic nation from the battlefield ... The two crusaders taken hostage have been executed by having their throats cut," the message on an Islamist site said.

The statement also paid tribute to "Emir Abu Hamza al-Muhajer (new head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq) for having the decision of the sharia (Islamic law) tribunal implemented" against the two US soldiers.

The group had claimed the abduction on Monday.

A pool of blood at a blast site in Baghdad ©AFP - Ahmad Al RubayeThe latest fatalities brought the US military death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,503, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

Caldwell also said that during the search operation coalition forces killed the "right-hand man" of slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was killed Friday by US forces in Yusifiyah, not far from where the two soldiers were abducted, Caldwell said.

The Mashhadani are a major tribe of Sunni Arabs, who are blamed for fueling the raging insurgency.

"We do know that Sheikh Mansur was a key leader in Al-Qaeda in Iraq with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials within that organisation," Caldwell said.

He described him as Zarqawi's right-hand man and a liaison between Al-Qaeda and tribes in the restive area south of Baghdad.

Wreckage after a car bomb exploded in Baghdad ©AFP - Ahmad Al Rubaye"He was tied to the senior leadership, including having relationships with both Zarqawi and al-Masri," Caldwell said, referring to Abu Ayub al-Masri, whom the US military claim to be Zarqawi's successor and the same man as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

The general said Sheikh Mansur he was detained by US forces in July 2004 for alleged links to two militant Sunni insurgent groups Ansar al-Sunna and Ansar al-Islam, but released that autumn, at which time he joined Al-Qaeda.

In other developments, the US military said it killed 15 "terrorists" during overnight raids in farmland near Baquba, northeast of the capital.

"Coalition forces killed 15 terrorists and detained three other suspects during simultaneous raids north of Baquba," a statement said.

But Iraqi police, witnesses and a human rights activist disputed the US claim, saying the victims were all poultry farm workers who had been sleeping in the fields of Bushaheen village in an area known as Al-Salam (peace), some 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Baghdad.

Japanese soldiers in Samawa ©AFP - Ahmad Abdel Razak"I hid and saw them shoot my brother Wissam after he started running," Hussam Shamel told AFP, adding that he had lost another brother and that his father and a third brother were missing.

Meawnhile, Japan ordered a pullback of troops from the southern Muthanna province, ending its first military mission since World War II to a country where fighting is under way.

Iraqi forces are expected to assume control next month of the relatively safe and sparsely populated province bordering Saudi Arabia.

In further violence, at least 13 people were killed in rebel attacks and bombings across, including five in Baghdad where a massive security crackdown involving a combined Iraqi-US force of almost 60,000 was in its seventh day.

One bomb attack hit a busy second-hand clothing market in Baghdad killing two and wounding dozens. In the southern city of Basra a suicide bomber blew himself inside a hospice killing a woman and wounding several people.