US reports two local Baghdad embassy staff missing

WASHINGTON - Two Iraqi employees of the US embassy in Baghdad have disappeared, the State Department said Thursday after an unconfirmed claim by Al-Qaeda in Iraq that it had executed a pair of embassy staff members.
"There are two local national employees of the embassy in Baghdad who are missing," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters, adding that US and Iraqi authorities and security forces were investigating.
"Their whereabouts at this point are unknown," Casey said, declining to elaborate further or identify the missing staff.
Earlier the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq issued a statement on the Internet saying it had on Monday executed a man and a woman described as holding "important positions in the American embassy building," according to a translation provided by the SITE Institute which monitors extremist websites.
The group said it had taken "a large quantity of money as booty" from the man and woman.
The authenticity of the claim could not be verified.

05/31/2007 16:24 GMT