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U.S. widens search for missing soldiersBlood, abandoned vehicle found near site of checkpoint attack
 SPECIAL REPORT
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition forces expanded the search Sunday for two U.S. soldiers seized Friday by insurgents at a checkpoint southwest of Baghdad, officials said. The U.S. command in Iraq pledged to use "all means at their disposal" to find the missing troops. "A thorough search continues for two soldiers still listed as 'duty status and whereabouts unknown,' " the military said late Sunday in a written statement. Troops were using unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, boats and dive teams in the search despite "harassing attacks" intended to disrupt their efforts, the statement said. Soldiers from at least three brigades expanded the search area from the site of the abductions, the statement said. "Iraqi citizens continue to assist the search efforts by providing a significant number of leads, which have, and continue to be, investigated," it added. A U.S. military official said the search has turned up an abandoned vehicle with blood in the back, and boot prints on the ground nearby. Police said Sunday that at least four masked gunmen seized the two soldiers after an attack on a checkpoint near Yusufiya on Friday night. Another U.S. soldier was killed in the checkpoint attack. Yusufiya, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, is in a dangerous area of northern Babil province known as the "Triangle of Death." Insurgents have been known to hit checkpoints in the area with small-arms fire. The New York Times reported in its Sunday editions that Iraqi witnesses said they saw the two soldiers being led by masked insurgents to a pair of cars. "There are intelligence indicators [that] they may have been captured alive rather than killed," a senior military official told CNN on Saturday night. The paper cited Iraqis in the area, who were interviewed by telephone from Baghdad, as saying the attack appeared to have been intended to separate the force and lure some soldiers away. (Watch painful memories for mother of missing soldier -- 1:49) The paper quoted Hassan Abdul Hadi, who said he was tending to his date palms and apple trees when he heard gunfire and explosions. Hadi said that he walked to the road and saw a U.S. Humvee, the Times reported. "I was shocked to see the Humvee -- nothing seemed to be wrong with it," Hadi told the Times. "Then I heard the men shouting 'God is great!' and I saw that they had taken the Americans with them. The gunmen took them and drove away." The Times cited witnesses as saying insurgents had been firing at the checkpoint from fruit groves along the road, and that when soldiers gave chase in two Humvees, the insurgents retreated into the groves. At that point seven or eight guerrillas attacked the checkpoint from another direction, the paper reported the witnesses as saying, adding that a team of U.S. forces arrived minutes after the two soldiers were taken away. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Saturday that soldiers at a traffic control point near the checkpoint heard an explosion and small-arms fire about 7:55 p.m. (11:55 a.m. ET) Friday. (Watch how the military is using land, air and water resources in search -- 2:59) Reinforcements arrived within 15 minutes and found one soldier dead and the other two missing, the general said. The names of the two soldiers are being withheld until their families are notified. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Barbara Starr contributed to this report 
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