Authorities receive severed fingers of hostages taken in Iraq

BAGHDAD - U.S. authorities in Baghdad have received five severed fingers belonging to four Americans and an Austrian who were taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The FBI is investigating the grisly development, and the families of the five kidnapped contractors have been notified, American officials said on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Authorities confirmed that the fingers belonged to hostages Jonathan Cote, of Gainesville, Fla.; Joshua Munns, of Redding, Calif.; Paul Johnson Reuben, of Buffalo, Minn.; Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria; and Ronald J. Withrow, an American who was kidnapped separately from the others.

Keep their families in your prayers.

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Further update:

Cote, 25, and the others– Paul Reuben, 41, Joshua Munns, 25, and Bert Nussbaumer, 26, are employees of Crescent Security Group, a military contractor providing security to conveys in Iraq and elsewhere through the region. A fifth finger, from computer specialist Ronald Withrow, was also sent. Withrow was abducted in Jan of 2006. Cote’s team leader with Crescent, John Young, was also abducted, but has not been linked to the body parts.