Gothamist: Mother of Captured Soldier Keeps Vigil in Queens...

Even though a Sunni insurgent group claimed yesterday that two captured U.S. soldiers had been killed, one of the soldiers' mothers hoping that her son is still alive. Maria Rosario Duran spoke to reporters outside her Corona, Queens home. She said, "I can't even imagine that he's not going to return alive, that I will never see him again."

The insurgents, who have been linked to Al Qaeda, allegedly captured Duran's son, Specialist Alex Jimenez, Private Byron Foulty and Private Joseph Anzack last month just south of Baghdad. They showed Jimenez's and Foulty's IDs on a video, but not the soldiers themselves. Anzack's body was found two week ago in the Euphrates River.

Jimenez was born in Queens and lived there for seven years before moving to Massachusetts. Duran has been keeping a vigil for her son and Foulty for the past few weeks. The Daily News' MIchael Daly was at her press conference and noted the "uncommon valor" in her faith.

This past Memorial Day, Mayor Bloomberg marched in Queens parades and asked people to remember four soldiers from Queens who have died in the Iraq war. Here's CNN's up-to-date list of U.S. & Coalition deaths, which includes 3,494 Americans.

Photograph of Duran outside her Queens home by Mary Altaffer/AP