By msnbc.com staff
The U.S. military has identified the remains of the last American service member unaccounted for in Iraq, the Associated Press has reported.
Staff. Sgt. Ahmed Kousay al-Taie was an Army interpreter from Ann Arbor, Mich. He was born in Iraq and moved to the U.S. as a teenager. He joined the Army Reserve in December 2004.
The military’s mortuary in Dover, Del. positively identified part of his remains. Army officials provided no details about how his remains were discovered.
In 2006, al-Taie left Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone by motorcycle to visit his wife, an Iraqi he had married the year before. At his relative’s house, three cars pulled up. Hostage-takers handcuffed al-Taie, then 41, and forced him into one of the cars, Mag. Gen William Caldwell said in a statement in 2006. One of the kidnappers took his cell phone.
Officials in Iraq offered up to $50,000 for information that would lead to al-Taie, according to an Army press release.
Caldwell said troops had conducted 51 search operations based on 328 tips. Those raids resulted in 35 suspects, many of whom were detained and offered valuable information, Caldwell said.
"We have fairly good information that tells us where we think he could still be held and who perhaps may have him," Caldwell said in 2008. Three soldiers were killed and six wounded during those search operations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
