The FBI has said that it has recovered the remains of two kidnapped US contractors in Iraq.

The remains were identified as Ronald Withrow of Texas and John Roy Young of Missouri.

Withrow had been working for the firm JPI Worldwide when he was kidnapped in Iraq on January 5th 2007.

Young meanwhile was being employed by Crescent Security Group when he was taken on November 16th 2006.

The FBI said that the investigation into the kidnappings is ongoing and that the families of the two men had been contacted.

A statement declared: "This is an open investigation, and the FBI, working with its partners in the Hostage Working Group in Iraq, will continue to aggressively investigate every available lead in order to identify, apprehend, and bring to justice those responsible for this heinous criminal act."

Earlier it was announced that the death of four US troops in a roadside bomb in a southern Baghdad district on Sunday had brought the American death toll in Iraq to 4,000 during the last five years.
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