The missing American soldier who has been the subject of an intensive manhunt here in the capital since he was kidnapped by gunmen outside the heavily protected Green Zone last week was secretly married to an Iraqi woman and had been visiting her at the time of the abduction, several people who identified themselves as his in-laws said Sunday.

These people, who provided the first vivid account of the abduction, said the kidnappers were members of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia, who dragged the soldier into a car at gunpoint. His whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

The soldier’s marriage, if confirmed, would not only be highly unusual but also a violation of American military rules, and would put the mystery of the missing soldier in an entirely new light. The American military command has been circumspect in the details of the missing soldier, saying he was an Iraqi-American interpreter who had left the Green Zone without permission to visit unidentified relatives in Baghdad. Search squads have shown local residents the missing soldier’s picture, but the military has not even released his name.

The new details of his family connections were disclosed as a spate of attacks reported elsewhere in Iraq left at least 33 people dead. These included an ambush on a police academy bus in southern Iraq that killed 17.

The people who said they were the missing soldier’s in-laws identified him as Ahmed Qusai al-Taei, 41. They showed visitors to their Baghdad apartment an enlarged wedding photo of him and the bride, whom they identified as Israa Abdul-Satar, 26, a college student. They also showed the visitors glossy snapshots of the smiling couple in Egypt for their honeymoon. The couple had married three months ago, they said. The precise dates of the wedding and honeymoon, and whether the soldier had been on active duty at the time, were not clear.[more]

…and the dish ran away with the spoon…

aliraqnews is reporting that Ahmed Qusai al-Taei is the cousin of Intifadh Kanbar, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and Chalabi’s right-hand man.