Families, soldiers weigh video's message

Word of a new video that claims three captured soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division were killed in Iraq last month reached the gates of this Army base on Monday as some of their comrades prepared to return to war.

Soldiers getting their hair cut could watch the news on television screens, but most who came and went from Bradley's Military, a supply store just outside the sprawling base that the division calls home, paid little attention. Few wanted to talk about it.

"The (American) people don't need to hear any more about the battlefield," said Spc. Daniel Asuncion, 21, who was injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack less than a month ago in Afghanistan. "They already hear enough. It's propaganda for our enemy."

But Sgt. Troy Jenkins, who returns to Iraq on Saturday, said the fate of the three soldiers weighs on him, as does the thought of how those under his command will react.

"It means a lot, especially thinking about those soldiers and if they're dead or if they're not, what type of torment they went through," Jenkins said. "They're doing a job liberating the Iraqi people. It gets to me because you see how it works with the insurgents that we capture. We take care of them."

Jenkins, 36, has spent the past 13 years with the 10th Mountain Division and was previously in the Marines. He has served in Afghanistan, Iraq twice, and Saudi Arabia.

"I worry about my young fellows and how they process it," Jenkins said. "I keep their head in the game, keep them occupied."

The video says al-Qaida-linked insurgents killed the three soldiers in mid-May and claims to show footage of the ambush. The video offered no proof that the soldiers had been killed and buried.

The body of one of the soldiers was found in the Euphrates River, but the other two remain missing.

The body found May 23 was identified by the U.S. military as Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif. The missing soldiers have been identified as Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and of Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford Township, Mich.

The families and neighbors of the men held out hope Monday. Fouty's stepfather, Gordon Dibler of Oxford, Mich., said the military told him Saturday that the video showed personal identification items from the soldiers.

"We're praying, and so far, we don't know for certain that they aren't alive," he said.

A family friend said the military briefed Fouty's father, Mick Fouty, about the video on Saturday night.

"What it does not show one way or another is if they're alive or not," said Cathy Conger of suburban Detroit. "I just feel really bad about it. I hope that he's still alive. My prayers are with him."

Jimenez's mother, Maria del Rosario Duran, told reporters outside her home in New York City that she and Fouty's mother are in the same situation.

Speaking in Spanish, she said, "The belongings of my son, his ID, is what they have shown until now. I ask God for strength; the outcome of this situation is in his hands."

Francisco Urena, the veteran services director in Jimenez's hometown of Lawrence, said people in town remained hopeful despite the video.

"I have received about two dozen phone calls from private citizens wanting to know the latest on this news and offer the family their support," he said. "The city seems to be united in such a unique and tragic experience that we have been going through."

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Associated Press writer David N. Goodman in Detroit contributed to this report.