January 5, 2008

Army deaths: Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh died Wednesday of injuries suffered in a noncombat incident in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Ky. Pfc. Joshua R. Anderson, 24, of Jordan, Minn., died Wednesday of injuries suffered from an explosive device in Kamasia, Iraq. He was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. Pfc. Brian L. Gorham, 21, of Woodburn, Ky., died Monday at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds suffered from an explosive device Dec. 12 in Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Camp Ederle, Vicenza, Italy. Sgt. Shawn F. Hill, 37, of Wellford, S.C., died Wednesday in Afghanistan's Khowst province of wounds suffered from an explosive device. He was assigned to the 178th Engineer Battalion, 218th Infantry Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard, Rock Hill, S.C.

Cemetery arrests: Iraqi and U.S. forces arrested 18 militants Thursday in Najaf's vast cemetery, the head of the city's security committee said.

Insurgents killed: U.S. forces killed two insurgents just north of Muqdadiyah, the U.S. military said. Also, a U.S. helicopter missile killed one insurgent and wounded two others when it attacked a house in a rural area just south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Five suspected insurgents were detained.

Accidental archaeology: Add archaeology to the list of tasks U.S. troops in Iraq are undertaking. While grading an area near a helicopter pad at Kirkuk Air Base, a team of U.S. airmen stumbled upon what later was determined to be about 100 pottery shards believed to date from 2,000 years ago, when the Mesopotamian city of Nuzi flourished nearby. Other potential sites have since been discovered, lending added excitement to the find in an area that until now lay unexplored. During Saddam Hussein's rule, archaeologists were barred from the base, which was an Iraqi military facility before U.S. forces took it over. Now, U.S. and Iraqi experts are collaborating on a project to study the sites in detail.

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