3 soldiers with ties to state perish in Iraq

Three soldiers with ties to Washington were killed in Iraq on Thursday in roadside bomb attacks that have taken an increasing toll.

Staff Sgt. Coby G. Schwab, 25, who lived in Puyallup, and Cpl. Kelly B. Grothe, 21, of Spokane, were killed when a blast hit the armored Buffalo vehicle they were traveling in on a mission to clear a road in Ramadi.

Schwab was originally from Henderson, Nev., and his wife is an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Lewis, said Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Coon, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve.

Grothe was a 2004 graduate of Central Valley High School.

In a separate incident in Baghdad on Thursday, Pfc. Jerome Potter, 24, who grew up in Thurston County, was killed by a roadside bomb blast, according to accounts from his family reported by The Associated Press.

The Department of Defense had not announced Potter's death as of Sunday night.

Counting Potter, the soldiers' deaths bring the number of military personnel and civilian contractors with ties to Washington killed since Sept. 11, 2001, to 180, according to a database maintained by The Seattle Times. Of those, at least 68 were killed by roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices.

An AP database counts 3,373 U.S. deaths in Iraq as of Sunday.

The attack that killed Schwab and Grothe illustrates how insurgents using roadside bombs have become more sophisticated.

An initial blast injured five soldiers from Washington, Idaho and Montana in another vehicle. The Buffalo that Schwab and Grothe were in pulled up to assist the injured soldiers when the second bomb was detonated, spokesman Coon said.

All seven soldiers involved in the attack were from the 321st Engineer Battalion of the U.S. Army Reserve, based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. The unit has been in Iraq since September to clear roadside bombs and protect convoys, Coon said.

Potter's family said he was based at Fort Hood, Texas, and went to Iraq in October.

Ramadi in Anbar Province has been known as one of the deadliest parts of Iraq, with an entrenched Sunni Arab insurgency. Recent reports suggested that a corner has been turned there.

"Many Sunni tribal leaders, once openly hostile to the American presence, have formed a united front with American and Iraqi government forces against Al Qaeda," The New York Times reported late last month.