“Barbarically” killed, according to an Iraqi official. Traces of torture apparent.

Stop the ACLU has more.

Update: Press conference right now. Gen. Caldwell won’t confirm or deny the Iraqi report about the two troops; Steve Doocy on Fox says he sounds irritated and speculates it’s because the Iraqis leaked it to the press before the U.S. could notify the families.

Caldwell says we took a pound of jihadi flesh, too, killing a top-five leader of AQ in Iraq named Mansur Suleyman Mansur in Bakuba, near where the two soldiers went missing.

Update: Michael Berg redux? One of the soldiers’ uncles is already blaming the U.S. government for not offering a $100 million ransom. Matt Lauer called him on it.

Update: Sounds like Doocy was right.

Update: Here’s a snippet of audio from Thomas Tucker’s last phone call home, via Oregon’s Salem-News. You can listen to the entire call at the link.