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Search intensifies for missing troops

Detained suspected insurgents are guarded at an Iraqi security forces base in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Ned Parker and Julian E. Barnes Los Angeles Times
Detained suspected insurgents are guarded at an Iraqi security forces base in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

BAGHDAD – U.S. troops have detained hundreds of Iraqis, including four wanted suspected insurgents, and dropped thousands of leaflets from airplanes, promising up to $200,000 in reward for help in recovering three missing American soldiers captured Saturday by suspected Islamic radicals, U.S. Army officers said Tuesday.

At least 460 people had been held for questioning, although an undisclosed number have been released, the U.S. military said. More than 4,000 U.S. forces continued to sweep the orchards and farmland around Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad.

“Literally hundreds have been picked up for questioning and after are released,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Randy Martin, spokesman for the military command policing Baghdad’s volatile southern belt, a sanctuary of Sunni armed groups.

Eleven detainees have been identified as possessing valuable information, including the four suspected insurgent leaders, who had been sought before the ambush.

“We have conducted more than 460 tactical interviews and detained 11 individuals; four of them are considered high-value targets,” said U.S. military spokesman Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver.

“High-value targets” is a U.S. military term for alleged leaders of militant groups, bomb makers, tacticians and other insurgents. Garver said it was not clear if the four were connected to Saturday’s ambush 10 miles west of Mahmoudiya, which killed four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi Army interpreter.

U.S. military officials said they believe The Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group linked to al-Qaida, is holding the soldiers.

“We pray they are still alive so we can return them to their loved ones,” Martin said of the soldiers.

In the past 72 hours, U.S. troops, including special force units, have conducted at least 10 major operations aimed at militant hide-outs, Martin added.

Loudspeakers blared a message offering the $200,000 reward as Army vehicles rolled through the agrarian communities. The urgent appeal also has been broadcast on Iraqi radio.

U.S. soldiers have come under sporadic small arms fire during their manhunt in the region dubbed “the triangle of death” for its high rate of kidnappings and killings. One soldier was wounded in the skirmishes, Martin said.