Four of six Stryker soldiers identified in biggest loss in more than 2 years

Six Stryker Brigade soldiers from Fort Lewis were killed by a roadside bomb Sunday in Iraq, the single deadliest attack on Fort Lewis soldiers since six were killed in a bombing more than two years ago.

Though the Department of Defense has not released the soldiers' names, it did report that they and a civilian journalist died in the explosion in the Diyala province, an area northeast of Baghdad that's seen a surge in violence in recent months. The deaths underscore the risks faced by U.S. soldiers amid a stepped-up effort to try to improve security in Iraq.

One of the dead was Pfc. Michael Pursel, a 19-year-old soldier who once lived in Lacey while his father was stationed at Fort Lewis, his mother said. Also killed was Anthony Bradshaw of El Paso, Texas, Bradshaw's family said.

Other soldier identified by relatives were Spc. Joel Lewis, 28, of Tulsa, Okla., and Sgt. Jason R. Harkins, 25, of Georgia.

"It makes it a difficult day for us," Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek said Monday. "Each and every death has a keen effect on us and when an incident like this occurs, we really rally around the soldiers' families, friends and fellow soldiers."

Sunday was the second time a single blast has claimed six soldiers assigned to the Army base south of Tacoma. In December 2004, six were killed in the bombing of a military dining hall in Mosul, Piek said.

The Stryker soldiers killed Sunday were assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which deployed last June. The unit initially was scheduled to return home by early summer, but its tour was extended to October as part of President Bush's troop increase, Piek said.

Pursel volunteered to go to Iraq when the Army asked for replacements for a Fort Lewis infantry battalion that had taken numerous casualties, said his mother, Terry Dutcher.

"Michael was one of the first ones to raise his hand to go," she told The Olympian newspaper.

Pursel had been in Iraq a little more than a month, but Dutcher, a captain in the Air Force Reserve who lives in Utah, said her son died living his dream.

"We're proud of Michael, and Michael was doing what he always wanted to do," she said. "In light of how it turned out, I know Michael was happy. I just take peace in that right now."

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Pursel moved to Lacey in 1998, when his father was reassigned from Germany to Fort Lewis. He attended Christian Life Church and its academy, Christian Life School, the newspaper said.

His family moved to Utah in 2000; his parents have since divorced.

According to The Associated Press, family members identified Bradshaw as another of the soldiers killed Sunday. Bradshaw's family said he has two brothers, one a twin, serving in the Army.

The civilian killed in the attack was Dmitry Chebotayev, a Russian photojournalist who was on assignment for the Russian version of Newsweek, according to the magazine's Web site. The 29-year-old's photographs for a project depicting "the faces of Iraqi police" will be published in the next issue.

The Committee to Protect Journalists also reported Chebotayev's death, saying the freelance photographer — the first Russian journalist killed during the Iraq war — was reporting on U.S. efforts to control roads in Diyala province. He is the 101st journalist killed in Iraq since the war began, according to the committee's Web site.

More than 10,000 Fort Lewis troops have deployed to Iraq since the war began in March 2003. During that time, 105 Fort Lewis soldiers have been killed, including the six who died Sunday, Piek said.

The 3rd Brigade, now on its second tour in Iraq, has lost 45 members during missions in Iraq, 25 of them since June, The Associated Press reported.

In March, Stryker Brigade soldiers from Fort Lewis launched a new offensive in Diyala province, where Sunni opposition forces have gathered. The unit saw fierce combat during its first week in the restive province, with the fighting resulting in the death of a 21-year-old corporal.

On April 7, four U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala. Almost three weeks ago, al-Qaida claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing with dump trucks that killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 others in an attack on a paratrooper outpost there. U.S. authorities say the province has seen escalating violence since U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a security crackdown on Baghdad.

Fort Lewis has been the hub of development for the eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles, high-tech troop carriers that have advanced communications and more armor than Humvees. The brigades that support these vehicles have played a high-profile role in the renewed Pentagon push to try to improve security in Iraq, which has placed more soldiers out of well-fortified operating bases into smaller, neighborhood bases where they can jointly patrol with Iraqi forces.

Recently, the 3rd Brigade was joined in Iraq by a second Fort Lewis-based Stryker unit — the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which also is working out of the Baghdad area

Army officials have warned of a difficult summer ahead as the U.S. military crackdown intensifies.

Seattle Times reporters Sara Jean Green and Hal Bernton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.