Soldiers' families 'devastated'

2006-06-21 08:30

Houston - Relatives of two missing American soldiers reacted with a mix of grief and outrage over news that the soldiers' bodies were recovered in Iraq and that the men may have been tortured and beheaded.

The bodies found on Tuesday are believed to be those of Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Private First Class Thomas L Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, US military officials said.

They were found near Youssifiyah, where the soldiers disappeared on Friday during an attack on a checkpoint. A third soldier, Specialist David J Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Massachusetts, died in the attack.

Torture

An Iraqi defence ministry official said the bodies of Menchaca and Tucker showed signs of being tortured and that the men were "killed in a barbaric way".

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaeda in Iraq, suggested in a web statement that the men had been beheaded. The statement could not be authenticated.

"It's very upsetting to me that they would give you details of the torture, of the beheading," said Mario Vasquez, Menchaca's uncle.

Menchaca's mother, Maria Vasquez, answered her door in Brownsville early on Tuesday sobbing and unable to speak. She issued a statement written in Spanish that said, "I am against the war and I feel very hurt by what has happened to my son".

Family devastated

In Oregon, Tucker's family grieved in private. They said in a statement they were devastated by the news but heartened by the community support.

"Tom has gained a much larger family through this ordeal than he had when he left home to go help to free the Iraqi people and protect his country from the threat of terrorism," the family said.

Menchaca grew up in a close-knit but extended Mexican-American family in Houston. His uncle and cousins remembered a sweet, quiet young man who was proud to be in the military and later wanted to join the US Border Patrol.

"He talked about how happy he was that he was serving his country," said Sylvia Grice, 37, Menchaca's cousin.

Relatives said he married 18-year-old Christina Menchaca of Big Spring a few weeks before being deployed to Iraq. She has also declined to speak to reporters.

- AP