There is no delicate way to put it: With every passing day, the possibility that the three American soldiers abducted in an ambush nine days ago will be found alive grows slimmer.
This much is certain:
* U.S. military intelligence has a basic understanding of the insurgent network behind the ambush in the Triangle of Death on May 12 that left four soldiers and an Iraqi Army interpreter dead and three missing.
* Given that the search area has been widened beyond the triangle, intelligence does not include where the hostages are being held. Assertions by General David Petraeus that two of the three men are indeed alive did not include how old that information may be.
* The silence from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the group that took credit for the ambush-abductions, is deafening. No photographs or videotapes of the three men, let alone follow-up statements, have been released since an initial statement and brief follow-up warning that U.S. forces should not come after the hostages in the hours after the incident.
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