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An attack on a U.S. patrol which killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda, the U.S. military said on Monday, as thousands of troops scoured farmland for three missing soldiers.
The military said it was unable to confirm if the soldiers were being held by an al Qaeda-led group after the Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday south of Baghdad.
But U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said the attack had "al Qaedaesque elements."
"They lie. We know they lie on their Jihadist Web sites. But that said, we have seen these attacks and tactics by al Qaeda before," Garver told Reuters.
If confirmed, the ambush in an al Qaeda stronghold known as the "Triangle of Death," would be one of the worst strikes by the Sunni Arab militant group against U.S. forces in Iraq since the invasion in 2003.
Last June, al Qaeda abducted two U.S. soldiers in the same area where the patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi army interpreter were ambushed. Their badly mutilated bodies were found days later.
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