Washington servicemen killed on holiday

Two servicemen from Washington were killed in Iraq on Memorial Day, one in a plane crash and the other in a firefight, the Pentagon said.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Casey Crate, 26, of Spanaway, was one of four airmen who died Monday when a single-engine training plane went down about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Crate was assigned to the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, part of the Air Force Special Operations Command headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla.

Also killed Monday was Marine Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, 22, of Snohomish, who was hit by small-arms fire during combat near Ramadi.

The Pentagon said Starr was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Also in Iraq:

“ A mortar barrage killed three Iraqi children and their uncle as they played together outside their Baghdad home; they were among six people killed in the insurgency Wednesday.

“ Today, a car bomb targeting a northern Iraq restaurant where bodyguards of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister were eating killed nine people and injured 25, said police Brig. Sarhad Qadre. Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Nouri Shaways was not hurt.

“ Also today, a car bomb attack killed the deputy head of Diyala provincial council and three of his bodyguards north of Baghdad, police said. In Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber killed two Iraqi bystanders, police said.

Associated Press