August 17, 2007: Two American soldiers captured last May 12th in Iraq are still being sought. They have never shown up in any terrorist websites. No videos, no pictures. Several weeks after the soldiers disappeared, terrorists were claiming that the three soldiers were taken alive, but are now dead. It is feared that the soldiers were killed and their bodies destroyed or hidden. But the soldiers of the unit the missing men are from, the 4/31st infantry (of the 10th Mountain Division) persist in searching.

This has not turned up the missing soldiers, or their bodies. After two weeks of searching, the body of one of the missing soldiers was found in a river. Nothing about the other two. But the local terrorist organization has been shredded. Several Iraqis have been captured who admit to have been involved in the ambush on the missing soldiers. But none of these know exactly what happened to the missing men. When the search began, the Sunni Arab terrorists tried to bluff. They said they had the men, and demanded that the search be called off, otherwise the men would be killed. It quickly became clear that the terrorists could not provide "proof of life," and the search intensified. This has resulted in an increasing number of tips from local civilians. Terrorist weapons caches and safe houses have been found, and hundreds of terrorist suspects arrested.

The local civilians were fed up with all the violence, and used the constant presence of 4/31st troops to give up the local terrorists. The civilians were taking a chance, because if the U.S. soldiers didn't pick up all the terrorists, the bad guys would be back to exact revenge. But the troops of 4/31st are determined to find their buddies, dead or alive. And as long as they remain in the area, they will continue scouring it. There may be Iraqis in the area who know where the bodies of the two G.I.s are buried, but aren't talking, lest the protective American troops goes away.