An Al-Qaida-led group in Iraq said on Monday it had killed three US soldiers after capturing them last month but provided no evidence apart from pictures of ID cards of two of the men.

The US military launched a major search operation after the three soldiers went missing on May 12 when a US patrol was attacked in an Al-Qaida stronghold south of Baghdad. Four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack.

A video from the Islamic State in Iraq group posted on the Internet carried images of the US army identification cards of Byron Fouty and Alex Jimenez. The video showed credit cards and what the group said were belongings of the two soldiers.

"(US President George W.) Bush is the cause of the loss of your captives," said a caption on the 10-minute video, posted on websites used by Al-Qaida and other Islamists.

"Fearing the occupying army will continue its searches, harming our Muslim brothers, (the Islamic State in Iraq) decided to settle the matter and announced the news of their killing to cause bitterness to God's enemies," said a speaker on the video.

"The three soldiers were captives, then dead bodies."

The US military said it was studying the video. "We are further analyzing the video... it doesn't appear to contain any definitive evidence indicating the status of our missing soldiers," Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said in a statement.

The video showed a group of masked insurgents planning an attack and shaky night footage of what it said was the raid on the US patrol that led to the capture of the three.

The group, formed last year by Al-Qaida's wing in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents, has claimed responsibility for mass kidnappings and a series of major attacks.

The US military has said a body pulled from the Euphrates River near Baghdad on May 23 was that of one of the three missing soldiers, Private First Class Joseph Anzack. The body had bullet wounds and signs of torture.

The attack on the US patrol occurred near the town of Mahmudiya, in the same area where two US soldiers were kidnapped by Al-Qaida militants last year.

(China Daily via agencies June 6, 2007)