Defense confirms remains are captured soldiers

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Defense confirmed Friday that the remains of two U.S. soldiers captured in an ambush south of Baghdad more than a year ago were found this week.

A tip from an informant led the military Wednesday to the bodies of Sgt. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan, according to Jimenez' father, quoting officers who informed him of the discoveries.

"The Armed Forces Medical Examiner positively identified human remains recovered in Iraq July 9 to be those of two soldiers who had been previously listed as 'missing-captured,'" the Department of Defense said in a written statement.

The military did not say where the remains were found.

"Jimenez and Fouty were part of a patrol that was ambushed by enemy forces south of Baghdad on May 12, 2007. They were assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), at Fort Drum, New York," the military said.

Gordon Dibler spoke of waiting for news of his stepson, Army Pvt. Fouty, after military officials came to his home, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

"Every day that he's been missing has been a day of `what could have been' ... but after hearing the news ... I'm still in shock," Dibler said.

Uniformed officers visited Jimenez' father in Lawrence, Massachusetts, according to family friends.

Jimenez, a native of the Dominican Republic, said the military told him the soldiers' remains had been brought to the United States, where they were identified through dental records.

The father said his son died for a cause he cared about.

"He decided since he was young to join the Army," he said. "I'm very proud of my son."

The ambush happened in a section of Iraq that was known as the Triangle of Death.

The body of a third soldier who was captured -- Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, California -- was pulled from the Euphrates River in Babil province 11 days after the attack near Mahmoudiya.

An Iraqi interpreter also was killed.

Black ribbons of mourning replaced the yellow ribbons around the Jimenez home Thursday afternoon. A POW/MIA flag that had been hanging from the home for more than a year was also replaced by a U.S. flag.

Wendy Luzon, another Jimenez family friend, and who was with the father when the military officers read the official notification to the family, said: "It brings closure to the whole deal."

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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