Body of an Iraqi found by American forces in the Gulf

An American spokesman said on Wednesday that the American forces in the Gulf area found the body of an Iraqi who was among three Iraqis and two American soldiers missed since a ship had drowned, suspected to have had smuggled Iraqi oil this week.

News reports quoted the spokesman of the headquarters of the American fifth fleet in Bahrain that the research teams found the body of the Iraqi sailor on Tuesday ( November 20) and the other four American and Iraqis are considered dead.

The spokesman added that concentration is made at the meantime on finding out the bodies.

However, the oil ship " Samra " which was carrying the Flag of the United Arab Emirates UAE drowned on Sunday after an American team went into its deck to implement the sanctions imposed by the UN on Iraq.

The American forces had ordered the ship to head to an area the multi national forces keep ships suspected to smuggle the Iraqi oil, but the ship drowned in the international waters off the shore of Kuwait.

The American navy attributed the reason behind the drowning of the Iraqi ship to the bad weather conditions.

On the other hand, the UAE said that the oil ship Samra "1734 tons" was hoisting, illegally the UAE flag and it is registered in Panama.

However, the two Americans who drowned with " Samra" were among an 8- member team of the American ship " Peterson" while the three Iraqis were among the team of the 14- member ship.

The US defense department said the American navy rescued 10 Iraqis of members of the team and took out the body of one ( Iraqi).