More evidence of the "surge" at work

BAGHDAD – An Al Qaeda front group claimed Sunday to have captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, and thousands of U.S. troops combed through insurgent areas south of Baghdad searching for the missing troops.

The statement came on one of the deadliest days in the country in recent weeks, with at least 137 people killed or found dead. A suicide truck bomb tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq, killing 50 people, and a car bombing in a crowded Baghdad market killed another 17.