Search for missing Soldiers continues

15 May 2007
Multi-National Division – Center PAO.

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, an Multi-National Forces-Iraq spokesman, 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.”