Baghdad, Iraq ? Kidnappers of two German engineers seized their captives only two days after they arrived in Iraq, gaining access to their compound by pretending to be soldiers, police said Wednesday.

The two men arrived Sunday for a brief assignment at a government-owned detergent plant in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, German and Iraqi officials said.

Iraqi police initially reported the two were grabbed as they were driving to work Tuesday. But on Wednesday, two policemen said the Germans were taken from their compound by armed men who gained access by pretending to be soldiers.

More than 240 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. At least 39 captives have been killed. Thousands of Iraqis are believed to have fallen victim to kidnappers.

The German government has refused to identify the two hostages. But the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper identified them as Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich. The men work for an engineering firm based in Leipzig.

At least five foreigners have been abducted this month – including two Kenyan communications engineers missing after an ambush on Jan. 18 and American journalist Jill Carroll, who was seized Jan. 7. Her translator was killed.

The military said Wednesday that a U.S. Marine was killed by small-arms fire the day before in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. That raised the number of U.S. military personnel killed since the war began in March 2003 to at least 2,236, according to an Associated Press count.

On Tuesday, the Shiite bloc that won the most seats in the Dec. 15 vote opened preliminary talks with the Iraqi Accordance Front, a group of mainstream Sunni Arab parties, said Shiite lawmaker Baha al-Aaraji.

The Shiites proposed four candidates from their ranks to be prime minister, according to al-Aaraji. The Shiite religious bloc won the biggest number of parliament seats, and under the law gets first crack at forming a government.