AQ: 3 US soldiers captured last month are dead

Via MSNBC:

CAIRO, Egypt – An al-Qaida umbrella group claimed in a new video Monday that its militants killed three U.S. soldiers after capturing them last month.

An Islamic militant Web site said earlier on Monday it would soon release video clips showing the capture of three American soldiers who disappeared following an ambush in Iraq in mid-May. The body of one soldier was later found, but the other two remain missing.

The video shows the kidnapping as well as footage from after the attack, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which said it had obtained the 10-minute, 41-second clip.

The institute, which monitors militant Web sites, said the video also shows the identification cards of the two of the soldiers. A prominent Islamic Web site said in a banner headline it would soon show the video, but it was not yet posted.

Terrorism expert Evan Kohlman told NBC News he has seen the video and that it does not show any of the three soldiers who were abducted. According to Kohlman, the footage is of a nighttime attack from a distance, which the video claims is when the Americans were grabbed.

One GI found dead

The three U.S. soldiers were captured west of Baghdad on May 12 in an ambush later claimed by an insurgent umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq, that includes al-Qaida in Iraq.

The body of one of the soldiers was found on May 23 in the Euphrates River and later identified by the U.S. military as Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.