U.S. says captures 2 over Iraq soldier abductions

By Alaa Shahine

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces said on Thursday they had killed more than 23 Sunni and Shi'ite fighters in two operations in Iraq and captured two al Qaeda-linked militants suspected of links to the abduction of three U.S. soldiers.

The offensives underscored the continuing conflict between U.S. forces and militants on both sides of Iraq's sectarian divide, despite a dramatic reduction in violence this year.

U.S. forces said they killed 12 militants in a four-day operation against Sunni Arab fighters north of Baghdad and 11 in an overnight raid against Shi'ite militants in the south.

The two men captured were described as linked to the abduction of three U.S. soldiers in May, which triggered a massive manhunt in palm groves south of Baghdad during the deadliest three-month period of the war for U.S. troops.

Iraq has since become far quieter, but that incident remains a touchstone for U.S. forces. The soldiers went missing after their patrol was ambushed on May 12 in Mahmudiya in the "Triangle of Death", an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad.

The body of one of them was pulled from the Euphrates River near Baghdad later that month. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, in which four other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed.

The U.S. military said the two suspects were caught on Monday and Tuesday in Ramadi in the western province of Anbar. One was caught in a house where one of the missing soldiers' weapons had been found.

RAID KILLS 11