U.S. Sees Possible Links Between Incidents in Iraq

LAT

The slayings of three soldiers near the site of an alleged rape and the killing of a family may have been an act of revenge, an official says.

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is investigating whether the kidnapping, killing and mutilation of two American soldiers was carried out in retaliation for an alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman by another member of the same unit three months earlier, a military official said Tuesday.

The incidents occurred in nearby towns and the soldiers involved were in the same unit. The bodies of the two American soldiers and at least one Iraqi were mutilated. A third U.S. soldier was killed during the kidnapping of his comrades.

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Military officials initially believed that the three soldiers attacked in the town of Yousifiya were selected because they were vulnerable when separated from the rest of their unit. But as information about the alleged rape-killing has emerged, so have new theories about the kidnappings-killings.

"Was it a target of opportunity or was it a warning: Don't do this to our women?" said the military official.