While U.S. units continue to search for two soldiers missing south of Baghdad since May 12, the soldiers’ parent unit has kept up other military operations in the area.
Spc. Alex R. Jimenez and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty were among three soldiers captured after an ambush near Yusufiyah, Iraq. The body of the third soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., was found about 10 days after the pre-dawn attack.
Identification cards belonging to Jimenez and Fouty were shown on an insurgent video posted to the Internet weeks later, but no definite word on their fate has been found.
All of the soldiers belong to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division.
On Thursday, the U.S. military issued a news release detailing a police recruiting drive led by the “Polar Bears,” as the Fort Drum, N.Y.-based unit is known. Working with the 23rd Military Police Company and the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, the troops registered more than 1,200 Iraqi men who came to apply during a three-day police recruitment drive, which ended on June 25.
According to the military, the initial goal was to find 200 qualified officers. But more than 575 applicants showed up on the first day alone. The police garnered from the drive will be used in part to staff the Yusufiyah Joint Security Station, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been working together.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, visited the recruiting drive and spoke to some of the recruits.
Applicants included Sunni and Shiite tribe members from the area, officials said.
And while U.S. military officials were optimistic over the recruiting drive, they are still working toward a resolution in the search for Jimenez and Fouty.
On Wednesday, The Associated Press printed an interview with the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment commander, who was returning to Iraq from the U.S. after a short midtour leave.
Lt. Col. Michael Infanti was quoted as saying, “I’m gonna continue to search until they kill me or they send me home. That’s just the bottom line.”
“And when I find [the missing soldiers], I’m gonna keep running down the guys that did it like dogs — until they kill me or send me home … The bad guys know I’m coming. And they’re gonna put up a fight. And that’s OK.”
The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgents that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the attack and capture.
