WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon said Friday it changed the status of two soldiers who have been unaccounted for since an attack on their unit in Iraq on May 12 from "whereabouts unknown" to "missing/captured." The change reflects an official determination that Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., and Spec. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., were seized by hostile forces. The earlier designation is typically used when a soldier goes missing but military officials have not confirmed the circumstances.The change does not mean the military has gained any new information about their whereabouts.
An Army review board convened in Alexandria, Va., on June 12 to review the facts surrounding the case. It recommended that the two soldiers be declared "captured/missing," and on June 27 that was accepted by the Army's adjutant general. Relatives were notified of the change of status on Thursday.
Jimenez and Fouty were snatched in a raid on their Army unit on May 12 near Youssifiyah, south of Baghdad. The body of a third soldier taken in the raid, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., was found May 23 floating in the Euphrates River. Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed during the ambush. On June 16 the U.S. military disclosed that it had found the identification cards of Jimenez and Fouty in an al-Qaida safe house near Samarra, more than 100 miles north of the area where they disappeared. The house contained video production equipment, computers and weapons but no people, officials said.
The soldiers are assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.