Capture?

The enemy claims to be holding a US soldier prisoner and threatens to behead him. The US military is looking into the claim. Doing a head count fast during a war isn't the easiest thing to do.

The picture looks like it could be authentic. Or it could be a local dressed up like a US soldier. Indeed, given that the person pictured is still decked out in their gear, could this be a photo to encourage their side with their ability to grab an American? Geez, I'd think the first thing they'd do is strip the soldier of his gear. They also claim a massive battle success along with the capture. Indeed, he is supposed to be just one of many captured in that battle. So what if the US denies the claim? The enemy's supporters will be heartened by the lie and not believe us.

Or we might have lost a soldier to capture. We've lost a few so far and each time they've been killed. It would be nice to get him back, if true.

I guess we have to wait and see.

UPDATE: Via Instapundit comes a link that shows that this may be an action figure capture. The gear did look funny to me, but since I recently saw a picture of American soldiers in Iraq who appeared to be wearing Russian-style ammo pouches and since we are fielding new stuff all the time, I was not even remotely prepared to say that the equipment was proof of fakery. Same with the M-16 pointed at the "captive." If captured, he'd have lost his weapon. But since we don't have anybody missing and since the POW apparently looks suspiciously like an action figure, how pathetic is the enemy? Are the brave jihadis now reduced to knocking off toy stores? Just how many virgins do you get for this type of mission? But boy am I glad I showed some skepticism. On the bright side, I could have scraped up a rescue force from my son's toy box ...