An ambush early Sunday morning in Iraq killed four United States soldiers, their interpreter and ended up taking three U.S. soldiers hostage. The Islamic State of Iraq quickly took credit for the operation.

The U.S. military launched a massive search for their missing comrades, and now Al Qaida in Iraq is saying the search should be called off if there is any hope the three hostages will be released.

“Your soldiers are in our hands. If you want your soldiers’ safety, do not search for them,” the Internet posting said.

And yet, the only hope the three soldiers have of being found alive, presuming they are not already dead, is if they are rescued. Al Qaida in Iraq would make a huge error in their ways if they did not kill the soldiers since the professed reason for their jihad is to kill Americans even though the group has made a name for itself in Iraq by murdering Iraqi civilians.

There’s not much good news to report in this entire incident, but what is encouraging is that the U.S. military has received assistance in the form of local sheikhs and Iraqis in the area that is now cornered off and under search. It once again dispels the myth that Iraqis will not cooperate with the U.S. military, but since this entire ordeal will most likely end in tragedy, that lesson will once again be forgotten.

On the Al Qaida in Iraq front, it’s pretty obvious what their goal is (HT Cao).

Mohamad al-Janabi, a reputed al-Qaeda member in the nearby city of Salman Pak, said in a telephone interview that he was unable to contact his comrades in Mahmudiyah to determine whether they were responsible for the attack.

But he added: “I can assure you that we will start pressuring Bush in a new way at the same time he is facing pressures from the Democrats and the American people. And there will be no problem to sacrifice 10 soldiers in order to abduct a single American soldier and get him on television screens begging for us to release him.”