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Arab TV Shows Captured American Soldiers
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By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer

DOHA, Qatar - The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired footage from Iraqi television Sunday of interviews with what the station identified as captured American prisoners, and also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans.


Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld told CBS that if they are indeed coalition soldiers, "those pictures are a violation of the Geneva Conventions."


There was no confirmation that the prisoners were U.S. troops, or if they were, what unit they were attached to. Two of the prisoners identified their unit only as the 507th Maintenance; there is a 507th in both the Army and the Air Force.


The U.S. Central Command had no comment.


A senior defense official said Pentagon (news - web sites) officials did not know precisely how many Americans had been captured. The official declined to identify the unit involved so as not to cause panic among soldiers' families.


The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman said he thought fewer than 10 soldiers were missing in southern Iraq (news - web sites) and that military officials were trying to account for them. "Beyond that, we don't know," Gen. Richard Myers said on "Fox News Sunday."


Rumsfeld noted that under the conventions governing prisoners of war, "It's illegal to do things to POWs that are humiliating to those prisoners."


In the Al-Jazeera broadcast, four bodies could be seen lying on the floor of the room.


The station said they and the prisoners were captured around Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.


The British Ministry of Defense refused to comment about a BBC report that four were killed and 50 wounded during eight hours of fighting in Nasiriyah.


Al-Jazeera later showed footage of what appeared to be a fuel or water carrier parked alongside a highway and a body in uniform with full gear and still wearing a helmet lying behind the carrier.


In the Iraqi television footage, at least five prisoners including one woman were interviewed separately. Two were bandaged. They spoke American-accented English.


One of the men, sitting up, was being interviewed by an unseen person holding a microphone labeled "Iraqi TV." The prisoner spoke in English and at one point said: "I'm sorry. I don't understand you."


The narrator provided an Arabic translation, but it was possible to hear some of the comments in English.


The prisoners looked terrified. One captive, who said he was from Kansas, answered all his questions in a shaky voice, his eyes darting back and forth between and interviewer and another person who couldn't be seen on camera.


Asked why he came to Iraq, he simply replied "I come to fix broke stuff."

Prodded again by the interviewer, he was asked if he came to shoot Iraqis.


"No I come to shoot only if I am shot at," he said. "They (Iraqis) don't bother me, I don't bother them."

Another prisoner, who said he was from Texas, said only: "I follow orders."

A voice off-camera asked "how many officers" were in his unit.

"I don't know sir," the man replied.

Another prisoner, who also said he was from Texas, was lying on an elaborate maroon mat. The camera panned from his feet to his head, showing one of his arms as injured and lying across his chest.

Iraqi TV attempted to interview him lying down, at one point trying to cradle his head so it would hold steady for the camera. The eventually helped him sit up, but he seemed to sway slightly.



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U.S. Military Says About 10 Soldiers Missing
2 hours, 9 minutes ago Add Politics to My Yahoo!



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Sunday that some of its soldiers could have been captured during the fighting in Iraq (news - web sites) and about 10 service personnel were missing.


U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no more than 10 soldiers were unaccounted for in southern Iraq, but a defense official said the exact numbers were unclear.


The defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the missing American personnel probably were members of a maintenance unit that was part of U.S. forces in southern Iraq. The official declined to be more specific.


"The numbers were rough. We don't know whether it was 10, 11, 12, eight, nine," the official told reporters.


Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked if he believed there were any American prisoners of war. "There could be," he said.


Iraqi television has shown footage of what it said were four dead U.S. soldiers and five prisoners who said they were American.


Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that showing pictures of the prisoners violated the Geneva Convention.


On the "Fox News Sunday" program, Myers said Central Command was searching for the missing American soldiers.


"They are trying to account for the soldiers that are reported missing and beyond that we don't know," Myers said.


Asked how many soldiers were missing, and from where, he added, "Less than 10 we think."


"Somewhere in southern Iraq," Myers said.


Rumsfeld said he had heard that an allied aircraft was missing, but he had no information about claims by Iraq that two Western pilots had been forced to abandon their aircraft over Baghdad.


Asked whether any Western planes are missing, he said "There has been a report of an aircraft that's missing."


Rumsfeld did not clarify if he was referring to a U.S. or British plane.


British officials confirmed on Sunday that one of their Tornado strike aircraft was downed by a U.S. missile near the Kuwait border and that the two-man crew was missing.


The U.S. military said later that it had no reports that any Western warplanes were missing over Iraq.