Breaking and will be Updated

8:13 a.m. cdt: Only the bare facts are known as yet, but apparently a patrol of seven soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were ambushed in Mahmoodiyah. Five dead and three missing.

Off to the internets to see what I can find out...

9:26 a.m. the best information I can find is from the New York Times:

After the pre-dawn attack near Mahmoudiya, a Sunni stronghold about 20 miles south of Baghdad, nearby units heard explosions and a drone plane later observed two burning vehicles, the statement said.

Troops who arrived later found five of the soldiers dead. The other three members of the patrol were gone, according to the statement, from Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

The military refused to specify whether the Iraqi interpreter was among those killed or among the missing, citing security.

''Make no mistake: We will never stop looking for our soldiers until their status is definitively determined, and we continue to pray for their safe return,'' Caldwell said.