We go to their country, rape and kill a 14 year old girl and her family:
BAGHDAD (AP) - An al-Qaida front group that claims it has captured American soldiers warned the United States on Monday to stop searching for them and suggested it attacked the U.S. convoy as revenge for the rape and murder of a local teenager last year.
The U.S. military also said for the first time it believes the three missing soldiers were abducted by al-Qaida-linked militants after an attack that included three roadside bombs.
"What you are doing in searching for your soldiers will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches. Your soldiers are in our hands. If you want their safety, do not look for them," the Islamic State of Iraq said on a militant Web site.
"You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area," the statement said, referring to five American soldiers who were charged in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killings of her parents and her younger sister last year.
Three soldiers have pleaded guilty in the case. Meanwhile, 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft, intelligence units and Iraqi forces were scouring the farming area around Mahmoudiya and the nearby town of Youssifiyah as the military promised to find the missing soldiers.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said the U.S. military could not verify Sunday's claim by the Islamic State of Iraq but "it would not surprise me if ... al-Qaida in Iraq is involved in this because there are similarities to what they've done before."
The spokesman pointed out that the terror network also had claimed responsibility for killing two U.S. soldiers whose mutilated bodies were found after they disappeared in the same area last year.
The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its Internet claim that it was behind the attack in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, that also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq, a coalition of eight insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq.
Late last month, the group named a 10-member "Cabinet" complete with a "war minister," an apparent attempt to present the Sunni coalition as an alternative to the U.S.-backed *expletive deleted*it-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
On Sunday, U.S. troops surrounded Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, then methodically searched houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said.
The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.
Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.
Early Monday, U.S. and Iraqi forces exchanged fire with gunmen near Youssifiyah during the house-to-house search, killing two suspected insurgents and injuring four others, a top Iraqi army officer in the area said.
He said the fighting began at about 3:30 a.m. and lasted for about 30 minutes. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the coalition detained more than 100 suspects in the region.
The U.S. military did not comment on the report.
Mahmoudiya residents complained that forces of the U.S.-led coalition had searched their homes, and AP Television News video showed an apartment that appeared to have been ransacked. One local also said three residents, including two guards at a mosque, had been detained by coalition forces, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
The family of Army Sgt. 1st Class James David Connell Jr., 40, of Lake City, Tenn., said he was among one of the four soldiers killed in the attack near Mahmoudiya.
Deadly violence also struck other areas Monday.
The worst attack occurred in the Diyala capital of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, when gunmen in two cars opened fire on a checkpoint, killing three policemen and two civilians before fleeing, police said. Two policemen and four civilians were wounded, police said.
On Sunday, five civilians were killed execution-style in Baqouba by gunmen who apparently accused them of collaborating with the coalition.
The U.S. military has noted an increase in violence in the volatile region and sent in 3,000 additional forces.
A roadside bomb near the southern city of Basra killed one Danish soldier and wounded five Monday, according to Maj. Kim Gruenberger of the Danish Army Operational Command. An Iraqi translator also was wounded.
Seven Danish soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began. In February, the Danish government said it would withdraw its 460-member contingent from Basra by August and replace it with a smaller helicopter unit.
In other violence reported by police on Monday around Iraq, 11 people were killed and 22 were wounded. Police also found two bound bodies in the Tigris River.
Also Monday, U.S. soldiers stopped five lawmakers loyal to the anti- American *expletive deleted*it cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as they were walking inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, one of the legislators said. An Associated Press reporter witnessed the encounter.
The lawmaker said the soldiers drove up in an SUV marked "police" and stopped the legislators, who included two women, just outside the building where they attended a session.
The soldiers asked the men to hand over the passes giving them access to the Green Zone, home to Iraq's parliament as well as its government offices and the U.S. and British embassies. The lawmakers obliged, but an argument broke out.
One of the lawmakers later told the AP that the argument lasted about 30 minutes and ended with the soldiers giving back the passes.
Parliament is expected this week to debate a draft legislation sponsored by the 30 Sadrist lawmakers for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces in Iraq and a freeze on their existing levels.
The Sadrists say they have secured the support of 144 lawmakers in the 275-seat parliament, but the draft was not expected to win the support of so many if it ever comes to a vote.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8P485AG0&show_article=1
