5 Die in Ambush of U.S. Patrol in Iraq

Massive Search Launched for 3 Missing After 'Coordinated' Attack

BAGHDAD, May 13 -- A massive aerial and ground manhunt involving hundreds of American and Iraqi troops was underway Saturday for U.S. soldiers missing after an organized assault on a military patrol south of Baghdad. The convoy was carrying seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter, and the attack left five dead and three missing.

The pre-dawn attack occurred 12 miles west of Mahmudiyah, a volatile city nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers within a rural region dubbed the Triangle of Death. It is known to be infiltrated by al-Qaeda fighters and other Sunni insurgent groups. As of early Sunday, no group had asserted responsibility for the attack, U.S. military officials said.

In the hours after the assault, and stretching into the night, American combat helicopters, surveillance drones and airplanes scoured surrounding areas, U.S. military officials said. Troops secured a wide perimeter, conducting door-to-door searches and erecting checkpoints to seal off roads and streets to prevent the missing soldiers from being transported out of the area. U.S. military officials also were enlisting local leaders in the search.

"Make no mistake," Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the military's top spokesman in Iraq, said in a statement, "We will never stop looking for our soldiers until their status is definitively determined, and we continue to pray for their safe return."

A U.S. military source familiar with the manhunt said the two-vehicle convoy was struck with a roadside bomb, then was apparently ambushed by gunmen. Some of the soldiers had been shot. Flames consumed the vehicles, but it was unclear whether the explosion caused the fire or if it had been set later.

"It was a planned, coordinated attack," the source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

It was unclear whether the interpreter was among those killed or missing, said Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver, a military spokesman. Nor was it clear whether the interpreter was a soldier or a civilian, he added. The soldiers were assigned to the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

Several hours after the attack, the military had identified only one of the slain soldiers, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity because he was also not authorized to speak to journalists. This suggested that the corpses may have been difficult to recognize.

"Something pretty horrible happened last night," the official said.

The attack was the latest in a series of targeted strikes against American soldiers in recent weeks that have generated high single-day death tolls. On April 23, twin suicide truck bombings killed nine soldiers and injured 20 at a remote combat outpost in Diyala province. Last Sunday, a roadside bomb struck a convoy in Diyala, killing six soldiers and a Russian journalist, among eight U.S. soldiers killed that day.

The casualties underscore the growing vulnerability of U.S. troops in Iraq as they increasingly live in and patrol hostile terrain under a new counterinsurgency plan intended to wrest control of areas from insurgents. But the offensive has also multiplied the risks for U.S. troops as their enemies use their knowledge of the land and sophisticated guerrilla tactics to target them.

Saturday's attack occurred in the same region as one last June in which insurgents ambushed three soldiers manning a vehicle checkpoint near a power plant in the town of Yusufiyah. Spec. David J. Babineau, 25, died in the initial attack, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, were abducted. Their bodies, showing signs of brutal torture, were found after a manhunt involving 8,000 coalition and Iraqi troops.