BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi police found the body of a man who was wearing what appeared to be an American military uniform and had a tattoo on his left hand floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad on Wednesday morning. One Iraqi official said the body was that of an American soldier.

The man had been shot in the head and chest, Babil police Captain Muthana Khalid said. He said Iraqi police turned the body over to American forces.

The discovery of the body in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad in Babil Province, came as American troops and Iraqi forces continued their massive search for the three soldiers abducted May 12 in an ambush on their patrol near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.

The American military said in an e-mail that it was looking into the report, but could not confirm it.

The report of the body found was confirmed by a senior Iraqi army officer in the Babil area. He told The Associated Press that the body found in the river was that of an American soldier. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

In an interview with the Army Times newspaper last week, General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, said he believed at least two of the missing soldiers were alive.

“As of this morning, we thought there were at least two that were probably still alive,” he said in the interview, which was posted on the newspaper’s Web site on Saturday. “At one point in time there was a sense that one of them might have died, but again we just don’t know.”