Jihadists send severed fingers of hostages to U.S.

"They were kidnapped Nov. 16, 2006, by men in Iraqi police uniforms..."

"Severed fingers reportedly sent to US," by Rasha Madkour for Associated Press (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Severed fingers of five Western hostages were reportedly sent to U.S. government officials, giving the men's relatives hope that they are still alive, a brother of one of the missing men said.

The Austrian weekly magazine News first reported the delivery of the five fingers in Wednesday's edition, citing unidentified authorities working on the case.

Patrick Reuben, a Minneapolis police officer whose twin brother, Paul Reuben, is among the missing, said late Wednesday the FBI told his family members that "the fingers were confirmed to be those of the hostages."

Patrick Reuben told The Associated Press the news of the severed fingers was "shocking," but that the initial word the family got was "much more serious than that. Later on we found that it was fingers that were recovered and that the DNA confirmed it was the hostages."...

Kolko said the agency continues to investigate the whereabouts of the five men missing since 2006: Reuben, a former St. Louis Park, Minn., police officer; Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif.; John Young of Kansas City; Jonathon Cote of the Buffalo, N.Y. area, and Bert Nussbaumer of Austria.

The men were working for Crescent Security Group, a Kuwait-based private security company. They were kidnapped Nov. 16, 2006, by men in Iraqi police uniforms who ambushed a convoy they were escorting near the southern city of Safwan.