An al-Qaeda front group announced it had captured US soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, as thousands of US troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.
The statement came out on Sunday, one of the deadliest days in the country in recent weeks, with at least 126 people killed or found dead -- including two US soldiers who died in separate bombings in Anbar and Salahuddin provinces.
The al-Qaeda-linked group also claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bomb that tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq, killing 50 people. A car bombing also hit a crowded Baghdad market, killing another 17.
Troops surrounded the town of Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the 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.
Cars searched
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.
The Islamic State of Iraq posted a brief message on a militant Web site saying it was responsible for the attack and held an unspecified number of US soldiers. The group promised more details later.
The Islamic State is a coalition of eight insurgent groups. Late last month, it named a 10-member "Cabinet" complete with a "war minister," an apparent attempt to present the Sunni coalition as an alternative to the US-backed, Shiite-led administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
US military officials said they had no indication of who was behind Saturday's attack.
"It's difficult to verify anything that al-Qaeda in Iraq would say because they lie," said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, a military spokesman. However, "it would not surprise us if it were al-Qaeda behind this, because we've seen this type of attack, this type of tactic, before."
In Baghdad yesterday a parked car exploded near the popular Sadriyah market in the center of the city on Sunday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 46, police said.
Extension approved
Meanwhile, a Japanese parliamentary panel approved a two-year extension on Monday of the country's air force mission in Iraq, brushing off criticism that Tokyo should distance itself from the US' increasingly unpopular war there.
Japan backed the US-led Iraq invasion and provided troops for a non-combat, humanitarian mission in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah beginning in 2004. Tokyo withdrew its ground troops in July last year and has since expanded its Kuwait-based operations to airlift UN and coalition personnel and supplies into Baghdad.
A plan to extend that mission, which expires on July 31, was approved by the Cabinet in late March, but still requires legislative approval. The extension was approved by a parliamentary panel yesterday and is expected to go before the lower house, the more powerful of parliament's two chambers, today.
"The next several years are an extremely important period for nation building for Iraq," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the panel. "We need to demonstrate that we are committed in the long-term."
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