Group posts video of sniper shooting 2 US soldiers

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A video claiming to show two US soldiers being shot by an insurgent sniper in Iraq was posted on the Internet on Thursday by an al-Qaida-linked group. The footage shown on the video was blurred and edited. While the subtitle said "Hunting two American soldiers in Anbar," western Iraq, the pictures showed only one soldier falling to the ground as if he had been shot, and his body is quickly edited out of the street scene. The video's authenticity could not be confirmed, but it was posted by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, on an Islamic Web site known to be a clearinghouse for al-Qaida material. The video shows three soldiers walking along a pavement near a mosque. Shots are heard and a soldier in the background disappears behind a white truck, having possibly been hit. Then a soldier in front of the vehicle falls down, apparently shot. But before other soldiers can reach him, his body is edited out of the footage and the tape is replayed in slow motion. The video gives no date for the incident.