BAGHDAD The missing American soldier who has been the subject of an intensive manhunt in the capital since being kidnapped by gunmen outside the heavily protected Green Zone last week was, at the time, visiting an Iraqi woman whom he had secretly married three months ago, his in-laws said.They identified the soldier as Ahmed Qusai al-Taei, 41, and showed visitors a wedding photo of him and his new bride, Israa Abdul-Satar, 26, a college student, as well as pictures of the couple in Egypt for their honeymoon.
They also described in detail how members of the Mahdi Army of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, led by a local commander known as Abu Rami, came to the wife's home in central Baghdad last Monday and dragged Taei away.
"They were saying, 'He's an American journalist,'" said his mother-in-law, who asked that she be identified by only her nickname, Um Omar, because of fears of reprisals. "We were saying, 'No, he's an Iraqi.'"