After 16 months of hoping and praying, family members of two U.S. contractors kidnapped in Iraq (web|news) received the news they feared: their loved ones were not coming home alive. Officials have identified the remains of Paul Johnson-Reuben of Minneapolis and Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif., said FBI (web) spokesman Richard Kolko on Thursday. Authorities were awaiting forensic testing on remains of a third body. The FBI said the men's remains have been returned to the U.S. Johnson-Reuben's family learned of his death late Wednesday.

"We've been hoping for a very long time that he would come home safely. And the last month and a half I have been thinking about him constantly," said Patrick Reuben, Johnson-Reuben's brother.

As twins, Reuben said, he and his brother had a connection and could sometimes sense how the other was doing.

"It's just been really weird over the last month. I felt like something happened," he said. He wants to know the details of his brother's death, or "I'd always wonder what happened to my brother."

Messages left for Munns' family were not immediately returned Thursday.

Johnson-Reuben and Munns were among six Western contractors kidnapped in Iraq more than a year ago. The case received attention earlier this month when the severed fingers of five of the men were sent to the U.S. military in Iraq.

Several relatives had taken the discovery of the fingers as a hopeful sign that the men were still alive, but on Monday the FBI said the remains of Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo., had been identified.

The other men still missing are Jonathon Cote, of Getzville, N.Y. and Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria.

Cote's family said on its blog Wednesday night that the body still awaiting identification is not Jonathon's.

"The third body has not been identified yet but officials have ruled out that it is NOT Jonathon Cote," the posting said. "We really feel the need to ask for continued prayers. Please remember to pray for Jon's safety and the loss of the other hostages and their families."

Reuben, Munns, Young, Cote and Nussbaumer worked in Iraq for Crescent Security Group, a Kuwait-based private security firm. They were kidnapped Nov. 16, 2006, by men in Iraqi police uniforms who ambushed a convoy they were escorting.

Withrow was a contractor working for JPI Worldwide abducted on Jan. 5, 2007.

Written By AMY FORLITI

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