Heavy gunfire in central, north Syria; 11 killed

BEIRUT — Syrian security forces unleashed a barrage of gunfire Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and leaving thousands cowering in their homes as President Bashar Assad's troops kept up the government's assault on a 6-month-old uprising, activists and witnesses said.

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Nine of the dead were in Homs, a hotbed of opposition to Assad's autocratic regime. Two others were shot dead during raids in Sarameen, in northern Syria.

In a step the opposition says shows the regime is intractable, a planned visit by the Arab League secretary general Wednesday to push Assad to make major concessions to defuse the crisis was called off at the last minute at the government's request.

Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Heli told reporters in Egypt that Elaraby will now visit Damascus on Saturday. He said the decision was made in a phone call between Elaraby and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

For days, security forces have been pursuing activists and anti-government protesters in Homs, part of a ferocious crackdown on the most serious challenge to the 40-year Assad dynasty. The U.N. says more than 2,200 people have died in nearly six months of protests.

"All through the night, there was shooting. The gunfire didn't stop," a resident of the city told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. "I can't tell exactly what is going on because it's dangerous to go out."

He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, said security forces simultaneously stormed several districts in the old part of the city, including the Bab Dreib, Bab Houd and the Bayada neighborhoods. Nine people were confirmed dead in ongoing shooting in those areas, the LCC said.

The London-based Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across the country, said 10 were killed.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has seen some of the largest anti-regime protests in Syria over the past months, despite repeated crackdowns.

On Tuesday, security forces opened fire from a checkpoint in Rastan, just north of Homs, killing two people, including a 15-year-old boy, activists said. They said five unidentified corpses, including that of a woman, also were found dumped around the city center.

Mobile telephones, land lines and Internet connections in some parts of Homs were cut off Wednesday. Many people were staying home because of roads blocked by security forces. Others were too scared to leave.

State-run news agency SANA said a "terrorist group" kidnapped two Baath party officials in Rastan Wednesday. Authorities last week reported the kidnapping of the attorney general of the central city of Hama, Adnan Bakkour. Two days later, he appeared in a video announcing he had defected from the regime. Activists say he is now safely out of Syria. But authorities insist he was being kept against his will by gunmen and say they are searching for him.

Idilbi said there were reports of army defections in Homs Wednesday, saying fierce fighting took place between factions of soldiers. There have been credible reports of scattered, mostly low-level army defections in the past months, although it is difficult to gauge the extent.

An amateur video posted online by activists in Rastan showed a group of alleged army defectors in military uniforms saluting crowds calling for the regime's downfall from a balcony.

A particularly disturbing video making the rounds on social networking sites Wednesday showed a group of men in military uniform repeatedly shooting a man as he lay bleeding and motionless on the ground. The video, purportedly in Homs, says the men in uniform are pro-Assad thugs, not soldiers.

Syria has sealed the country off from foreign journalists and most international observers, insisting that foreigners are meddling, making it difficult to independently verify information coming out of the country. The government's violent crackdown has led to sharp international criticism and sanctions aimed at isolating the regime, including a ban on the import of Syrian oil, a mainstay of the regime.

Arab League officials in Egypt had said Secretary General Nabil Elaraby would have presented a plan under which Assad would immediately cease all military operations, release all political prisoners, begin dialogue and announce his intention to form a national unity government and hold pluralistic presidential elections by the end of his term in 2014.

The Local Coordination Committees, one of the main Syrian opposition activist groups, said the initiative provided "a good basis that can be built upon" as a way out of the crisis.

___

AP writer Sarah El-Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.

___

Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Gunman killed after assaulting Estonian ministry

TALLINN, Estonia — A man fired shots and set off a smoke bomb at the Defense Ministry in Estonia's capital Tallinn and then was killed as police moved in, officials said on Thursday.

The motive of the man who carried out the attack, a rare incidence of such violence in the small Baltic state of 1.3 million people, was not clear, the authorities said.

They named the man as Karen Drambjan and said he was born in 1954, without giving a precise birth date.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement Drambjan broke into the Defense Ministry building in the center of Tallinn and threw a smoke bomb.

It had initially said the man took two hostages, but in a later statement it said the people were caught in the building when it was evacuated and were later freed.

"The unknown man who entered the Ministry of Defense building slightly after three in the afternoon today was killed in the course of the joint operation carried out by the police and the Security Police," the statement said. "Nobody else suffered any injuries."

It said the man was armed with a pistol and with packets of explosives. It denied the man committed suicide, as had been said by some officials earlier. The prosecutor's office said the man had no link with the armed forces.

"The motive of his action has remained unclear," Prime Minister Andrus Ansip was quoted by news portal Delfi as saying.

"This is depressing. It looks like someone has been inspired by the events in Norway," he said, referring to the July 22 rampage and bombing that left 77 dead and suspected gunman Anders Breivik in custody.

A report on the website of Russian-language newspaper Dyen za Dnyom said Drambyan's apartment had been sold by court bailiffs on the eve of the attack.

Defense Minister Mart Laar was quoted by Delfi as saying that the man had hundreds of bullets, a bag of explosives and a gas mask. Laar was not in the building when it was attacked.

Estonian media said Drambjan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, held a university degree in law and owned a small law firm. He had joined a small left-wing political party.

Such incidents are extremely rare in Estonia, a former Soviet state which regained its independence in 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

The most recent unrest was in 2007 when Russian-speaking youths rioted and looted the city center for two days after authorities put a statue of a Red Army soldier, that had been in the center, in a cemetery.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Pentagon: Five US troops killed in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — A roadside bomb killed five U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan Thursday, a Pentagon official told Reuters, less than a week after 30 American forces were killed in the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops in the Afghan war.

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The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had previously said that five foreign troops had been killed, but declined to give their nationalities. Asked by Reuters, a Pentagon spokesman said they were American troops.

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At least 50 foreign troops have been killed so far in August.

Another foreign soldier was also killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, ISAF said, giving no further details.

Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties during the first six months of 2011.

Overnight, Taliban insurgents also attacked a police checkpoint in southern Helmand province, killing five Afghan policemen, Helmand police chief Abdul Hakim Angar said. No further details of the incident were available.

The spike in casualties -- almost 390 foreign troops have been killed so far this year , compared to a record 711 in 2010 -- comes at a time of growing unease about the increasingly unpopular and costly war.

Afghan security forces have been hit even harder than foreign troops. A total of 1,292 Afghan police and 821 Afghan soldiers were killed last year, said the Afghan government.

But it is civilians who have borne the brunt of the war. U.N. figures show a record 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in conflict-related incidents in the first six months of 2011.

Last month foreign troops began the first phase of a gradual process to hand security control to Afghan soldiers and police. That process is due to end with the last foreign combat troops leaving at the end of 2014, but some U.S. lawmakers are questioning whether that timetable is fast enough.

A Chinook troop-carrying helicopter crashed five days ago in central Afghanistan after it was likely hit by a rocket fired by the Taliban, killing 30 U.S. troops, seven Afghan troops and one Afghan civilian interpreter.

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ISAF said on Wednesday that it had killed the Taliban militants responsible for shooting down the helicopter.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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US releases names of 30 troops killed in chopper

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Thursday released the names of the 30 Americans who were killed last weekend when a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a Taliban insurgent downed their Chinook helicopter en route to a combat mission.

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According to officials, the team included 17 SEALs, five Navy special operations troops who support the SEALs, three Air Force airmen, a five-member Army air crew and a military dog, along with seven Afghan commandos and an Afghan interpreter. All perished.

The crash of the Chinook CH-47, about 60 miles southwest of Kabul, was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the nearly 10-year Afghan war.

U.S. military officials told NBC News that the notification process was complete early this week, but Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta — at the request of the Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command — agreed to delay the release of the names.

Here are the names of the fallen American servicemen, and some of their stories:

Lt. Cmdr. (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport, La., Special Warfare Operator, Naval Special Warfare unit;

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Robert J. Reeves, 32, of Shreveport, La., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Reeves and Kelsall had been childhood friends in Shreveport, La., where they played soccer together and graduated from Caddo Magnet High School, Kelsall's father, John, told The Times of Shreveport and KLSA-TV.

Both joined the military after graduation, though Reeves spent a year at Louisiana State University first, his father, Jim Reeves, told the newspaper.

Reeves became a SEAL in 1999 and served on SEAL Team 6, his father said. During his many deployments, he earned four Bronze Stars and other honors.

Kelsall was one of the first members of SEAL Team 7, his father said.

He trained in San Diego and met his wife of three years, Victoria, when he was attending the University of Texas out of Basic Underwater Demolition training, his father said.

Reeves placed several American flags outside his home and his neighbors joined in, many decorating their homes in red, white and blue in support of the families.

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Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J. Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, Calif., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, Ark., Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, Naval Special Warfare unit;

Ratzlaff wanted to be a Navy SEAL ever since he was a young boy.

"He did what he loved and died defending those he loved and those who loved him," his nephew, Jeff Adams, said as he read a statement from the family.

When Ratzlaff visited his hometown in northwest Arkansas, his late father would bring him by the log cabin restaurant where he ordered an egg, sausage and wheat toast every morning.

"The whole town was proud of him," said Loree Blackburn, who runs that restaurant.

Now, the community of 2,700 remembers Ratzlaff with flags flying at half-staff.

Ratzlaff would have been grateful for the outpouring of support for his family, his nephew said. But he "would want the focus to remain on the cause for which he made the sacrifice, not the sacrifice itself."

He had two sons and a wife expecting their third child — a girl — in November. He also leaves behind a sister and mother.

"As a Navy SEAL team member, my uncle was trained to keep a low profile and to do his job," Adams said.

Story: Afghan witnesses describe deadly Chinook crash

Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Kraig M. Vickers, 36, of Kokomo, Hawaii, Naval Special Warfare unit;

When he was a Maui High School football player, no one could match Vickers' intensity on the field.

But off the field? "You couldn't find a nicer guy," his former coach remembers.

"He played middle linebacker, so he was really smart, the quarterback of the defense; and when he put on his helmet, no one could match his intensity and aggressiveness," coach Curtis Lee told the Maui News.

Vickers, who would have turned 37 on Thursday, graduated from high school in 1992 and attended Evangel College in Missouri on a football scholarship. "He decided college wasn't for him," and returned home, his father, Robert Vickers, said. After stints in tree trimming and working as a hotel security guard, he became a certified scuba diver and decided to join the Navy in 1996.

He lived in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife Nani, who is seven months' pregnant with their third child. Robert Vickers said she is making plans to return to Hawaii because she only has a small window of time before doctors won't allow her to fly.

"He wanted to be buried near the ocean," his father said, adding that the family is awaiting details on when the body will arrive on Maui.

Story: Pentagon: Five US troops killed in Afghanistan

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Brian R. Bill, 31, of Stamford, Conn., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Bill had plans for when he finished his military service. He wanted to return to graduate school and hoped one day to become an astronaut.

For those who knew him, such lofty goals were not out of reach.

"He set his standards high. He was that kind of person," Kimberly Hess, a friend who graduated with him in 2001 from Vermont's Norwich University, told The Advocate newspaper. "He was remarkably gifted and very thoughtful. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for you no matter the time or day."

Diane Warzoha, who had Bill as a student at Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford, said it was no surprise that he fulfilled his goal of joining the SEALs.

"Brian just wanted to do his best, to protect other people ... Challenge did not deter him, ever."

Interactive: The cost of war (on this page)

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) John W. Faas, 31, of Minneapolis, Minn., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Top of his class. Quarterback. Team captain.

Faas' football coach had encouraged the natural-born leader to consider applying to a service academy to become a military officer, but Faas had decided in middle school that he wanted to become a Navy SEAL.

Faas wavered about his goal, joining the elite fighting force and becoming a chief petty officer.

"This is where John felt he was called," said Ron Monson, the football coach at Minnehaha Academy, a private Christian school in Minneapolis where Faas graduated as the 1998 class valedictorian.

The coach said Faas never showed bravado and didn't fit the Hollywood stereotype of a SEAL. Instead, the son of Gretchen and Robert Faas of Minneapolis, was the guy who always stood up for his fellow students.

"John was a man of unquestionable integrity and courage, as were those he served with," his family said in a statement. "He became a SEAL to serve his country and to make the world a better place for those less fortunate."

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Kevin A. Houston, 35, of West Hyannisport, Mass., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Houston's mother says he was born to be a SEAL.

"If he could do it all over again and have a choice to have it happen the way it did, or instead work at McDonald's and live to be 104? No. He'd do it all over again," Jan Brown told the Cape Cod Times.

Brown brought up her son in Hyannis, Mass., as a single mother.

Christopher Kelly, whose daughter was a friend of Houston, became the young man's mentor and father figure. Kelly, a Vietnam veteran, says Houston would always make time to visit Cape Cod when he had leave even though he made his home in Chesapeake, Va., with his wife and three children.

He was a football captain at Barnstable High School and joined the Navy not long after he graduated in 1994. He became a SEAL in 1999.

His boyhood friend, Joe Kennedy of Osterville, Mass., told the newspaper that Kevin told him the day they met in elementary school that he was going to be a Navy SEAL. "I had no idea what that was," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said friends on the Cape are planning a memorial service for him. Family and friends also held a service Thursday in Chesapeake.

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Matthew D. Mason, 37, of Kansas City, Mo., Naval Special Warfare unit;

A severe arm injury during fighting in Fallujah in 2004 didn't keep Mason off the Iraq War battlefield. Nor did it dull the competitive fire of the avid runner and former high school athlete from outside Kansas City.

Within five months of losing part of his left arm, absorbing shrapnel and suffering a collapsed lung, Mason competed in a triathlon. He soon returned to his SEAL unit.

"He could have gotten out of combat," said family friend Elizabeth Frogge. "He just insisted on going back."

Mason, the father of two toddler sons, grew up in Holt, Mo., and played football and baseball at Kearney High School. He graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in 1998. His wife, who is expecting their third child — another boy — also attended Northwest Missouri.

Mason returned to Missouri in May to compete in a Kansas City triathlon, and took his family to Walt Disney World for the first time this summer, Frogge said.

"He loved doing what he did," she said. "He was the type of guy who thought he was invincible."

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, Texas, Naval Special Warfare unit;

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist/Diver) Nicholas H. Null, 30, of Washington, W.Va., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Heath M. Robinson, 34, of Detroit, Mich., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Before he even graduated from Michigan's Petoskey High about 225 miles northwest of Detroit, Robinson was the type of guy people could picture becoming a Navy SEAL.

"He was hardworking, dedicated and loyal," athletic director Gary Hice told the Detroit Free Press. "And those are all attributes for a Navy SEAL. He was a nice young man."

Robinson joined the military after high school, according to the Petoskey News-Review, and his service record shows he served in six Special Warfare Units from 2000 to 2011.

Robinson's father declined to comment about his son's death when reached by The Associated Press.

Petoskey Principal Jim Kanine said Robinson and his family would be remembered in prayers.

"We understand that's the ultimate sacrifice a human being can make," Kanine said.

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Darrik C. Benson, 28, of Angwin, Calif., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Parachutist) Christopher G. Campbell, 36, of Jacksonville, N.C., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Campbell may have been physically slight, but family and friends said the Navy SEAL was always ready to take on a challenge.

His mother, Diane Campbell, told The Daily News of Jacksonville she remembered him and his older brother learning to ride a unicycle brought back from Okinawa as one example of her son's determination.

"If Chris thought he could, he would try," Diane Campbell said.

Former high school football coach Jack Baile remembered Campbell, 36, showing he was up to a test when he tried out for the team as a smallish junior at about 5 foot-7 and 140 pounds.

"When kids come out for football for the first time, the first thing you're worried about is, are they going to like to be hit, or want to be hit, and like to hit. That was not a problem with Chris. He had no fear with that," Baile told The Associated Press.

"I remember hearing for the first time when he had joined the SEALS, I thought that kind of fits Chris. He didn't have a lot of fear of things and I think he always wanted to try to prove to somebody that he could do things. He was an adventurous-type guy."

Campbell's work frequently sent him on missions out of the country, and his family asked few questions when he showed up with a full beard or arrived for a visit that could only last three hours. In an email to his daughter Samantha sent days before the crash, he wrote that he was looking forward to coming home in November and celebrating her 15th birthday in January.

Chris Campbell told his family that if he was killed in the line of duty, he wanted the local newspaper to write about his life and death, with a request for donations in his memory to the Wounded Warrior Project. The project helps wounded service members recover from their war injuries.

Information Systems Technician Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Jared W. Day, 28, of Taylorsville, Utah, Naval Special Warfare unit;

Day grew up in the Salt Lake City area and joined the Navy in 2002 "because he loved his country, the people who live here, and the freedoms we all have," his family said.

He had participated in multiple missions around the world, a family statement said.

"He was truly special, not only to our family, but to this country," his family said. "Jared's memory will live in our hearts forever."

His family also described him as being "determined with a fierce sense of humor."

Day rose to become an elite member of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group where he served as tactical commander.

Day's family attended a ceremony for the soldiers earlier this week at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where they were given a few minutes with President Barack Obama.

Master-at-Arms Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist) John Douangdara, 26, of South Sioux City, Neb., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Douangdara told his family very little about his duties in the military. They didn't even know he took part in operations with the Navy SEALs.

But his mother, Sengchanh Douangdara, said it was clear her son was committed to the military and proud to serve the country that adopted his Laotian family decades ago. Douangdara was Naval Special Warfare personnel, who support the SEALs.

"I know that he loved his job. It was a job he chose," she told the Sioux City Journal.

She recalled her son as "the middle child, very quiet."

Douangdara's parents fled communist forces in their native Laos in 1979, then immigrated to the United States after the birth of their first child. John was born four years later, the third of five children his parents would raise in South Sioux City, a Missouri River town along the border with Iowa.

The oldest child, Chan Follen, said her family's sadness is tempered by pride in Douangdara's service to the U.S.

"We are proud Johnny fought for the country that embraced our family and gave us the opportunity to reach for the American dream," Follen said.

Cryptologist Technician (Collection) Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist) Michael J. Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, Pa., Naval Special Warfare unit;

If someone was sad, Strange tried to make them smile. He loved snowboarding, surfing, scuba diving, running, and shooting guns on the range.

"He loved his friends, his family, his country; he loved making people laugh. He was one of a kind," Strange's brother, Charles Strange III, said outside the family's Philadelphia home, where American flags were planted throughout the neighborhood.

Strange decided to join the military when he was still in high school, and had been in the Navy for about six years, first stationed in Hawaii and for the last two in Virginia Beach, where he became a SEAL about two years ago, his mother, Elizabeth Strange, told The Associated Press.

But he always told his family not to worry.

"He wasn't supposed to die this young. He was supposed to be safe," Elizabeth Strange said. "And he told me that, and I believed him. I shouldn't have believed him because I know better. He would say, 'Mom, don't be ridiculous and worry so much. I'm safe.'"

Charles Strange said his brother loved the SEALS, especially "the competitiveness, getting in shape and running and swimming and all of that."

He also had two sisters and recently became an uncle. The family last saw him in June, when he came for a weeklong visit for his birthday, his mother said. He was supposed to be back for Thanksgiving.

"It was going to be such a good time," his mother said.

His grandmother Bernice Strange remembered him as a young man who loved cheesesteaks and the Philadelphia Eagles and always brought her flowers.

"He was a wonderful grandson to have," she said Monday night. "God truly blessed me with him."

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist) Jon T. Tumilson, 35, of Rockford, Iowa, Naval Special Warfare unit;

Tumilson got an early start on his preparation to join the SEALS. He had been a wrestler in high school and competed in marathons and triathlons.

Neighbors remembered the Rockford, Iowa, man as a warrior committed to the SEALs, no matter the pain he endured in training or the risks he ran on each mission.

"When he did something, he put his all into it," Jan Stowe, a neighbor of the Tumilsons for more than 30 years, told the Des Moines Register.

Tumilson, who was 35 when he died, "was going to be a Navy SEAL since I can't remember when," Stowe said. "He's like a hero to everyone here."

Another neighbor, Mark Biggs, said people were shocked by his death.

"You just never thought it would happen to Jon," Biggs told the Mason City Globe Gazette. "He's done so many dangerous things."

Friend Justin Schriever remembered Tumilson as "a die-hard at everything. He'd always go the extra mile on everything. He wouldn't let anything stop him from accomplishing something."

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Aaron C. Vaughn, 30, of Stuart, Fla., Naval Special Warfare unit;

Vaughn was a man of deep faith, insisting to his family that he didn't fear his job as a Navy SEAL "because he knew where he was going" when he died.

"Aaron was a Christian and he's with Jesus today," Geneva Vaughn of Union City, Tenn., told The Associated Press on Saturday. "He told us when we saw him last November that he wasn't afraid ... he said, 'Granny, don't worry about me.'"

"He was a tough warrior, but he was a gentle man."
Story: Navy SEAL’s widow: ‘We were blessed to be together’

Geneva Vaughn said her grandson joined the SEALS straight out of boot camp and was already a decorated fighter when he was asked by the Navy to return stateside to become an instructor. But he applied to SEAL Team 6 after two years, earning his way onto the squad in 2010.

He asked the military to return him to combat and shipped out just six weeks before he was killed, Vaughn said.

"He was doing what he loved to do and he was a true warrior," Geneva Vaughn said.

Aaron Vaughn leaves behind his wife, Kimberly, and two children, 2-year-old son Reagan and 2-month-old daughter Chamberlyn.

"They will take away his love for Christ. They will take his dream and his love for the country, and they will know what an amazing man he is," Kimberly said about the children in an interview on NBC's "Today" show Monday.

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Jason R. Workman, 32, of Blanding, Utah, Naval Special Warfare unit;

Workman had his sights set on becoming a SEAL as a young teenager. He was about 14 when his older brother graduated from West Point. That's when he knew he wanted to be an elite soldier, friend Tate Bennett told The Deseret News. Then came the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and Workman's calling grew even stronger.

"He didn't become a Navy SEAL by chance," Bennett said. "He knew that's what he wanted at a young age and made it happen."

After returning from his Mormon mission, Bennett said, Workman went to Southern Utah University and later joined the Navy.

Across his small hometown of Blanding in southern Utah, flags were flown at half-staff as residents mourned the loss of one of their own.

Even as a SEAL, Workman came home periodically. During his last trip, he led training sessions with local law enforcement, sharing his military skills, and planned to provide more training during a trip home this fall, Mayor Toni Turk told the Salt Lake City Tribune.

"He fulfilled his dream and his ambition," he said.

Workman had a wife and a 21-month-old son.

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Jesse D. Pittman, 27, of Ukiah, Calif., Naval Special Warfare;

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL) Nicholas P. Spehar, 24, of Saint Paul, Minn., Naval Special Warfare;

When Spehar said he was going to do something, you could take him at his word.

The 2005 graduate of Chisago Lakes High School was a "quiet leader," a star in academics and three sports during his time at the school along Minnesota's eastern border, said Principal Dave Ertl.

"Nick was an active young man, and if he said he was going to do something, he did it," Ertl said. "I could see him as a Navy SEAL and giving 110 percent to serve his country."

Younger brother Luke Spehar told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that the family does not want to talk about Nick, the second of five children, until after his funeral. "We need time," he said.

Craig Swanberg, 46, of Chisago City, a town of about 4,700, said the Spehar kids played football with his own children.

"The whole family is a down-to-earth group ... nice, everyday, salt-of-the-earth people," Swanberg said. "Nick was a big kid, a powerlifter, who was not as soft spoken as his brothers."

Ertl said Spehar played football and baseball for Chisago Lakes, starred on the swimming team and was an academic letter winner.

"He gave 100 percent in high school," Ertl said. "And he gave 100 percent to our country."

Chief Warrant Officer David R. Carter, 47, of Centennial, Colo.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), Aurora, Colo., U.S. Army;

Carter was a man of faith who was "somebody you could count on."

Yolanda Levesque, a neighbor speaking for the pilot's family, called Carter an outstanding father, "a true Christian" and a patriot.

"He was our American hero," Levesque said, struggling to keep her composure while reading from a statement at a news conference Tuesday.

Carter was a chief warrant officer 4, a full-time Army National Guardsman and an instructor pilot. He was a skilled aviator with more than 700 hours of combat flying time, said Army Guard Col. Chris Petty.

Carter was one of two pilots flying the Chinook CH-47D on Saturday when it was apparently shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by an insurgent.

He had a passion for training young aviators, Petty said, and leaves behind "much more than dozens" of new pilots he taught.

"There's a big hole in our organization today," Petty said.

Maj. Gen. H. Michael Edwards said Carter was "somebody you could count on."

"Every time you needed a launch, a helicopter for a state mission, Dave Carter was there," Edwards said.

Carter, of the Denver suburb of Aurora, is survived by his wife, Laura, and two children, Kyle and Kaitlen.

Carter's sister-in-law Marie Krizanovic described him as a "gentle-souled person."

"Happy-go-lucky, gentle-natured," Krizanovic said. "He had a very strong spiritual faith. He loved flying."

David and Laura Carter were set to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in December.

Chief Warrant Officer Bryan J. Nichols, 31, of Hays, Kan.  He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kan., U.S. Army;

Nichols was eager to get back to flying after a stint handling paperwork as a unit administrator. So when the word went out that people were needed to train for a mobilization, Nichols volunteered.

Lt. Col. Richard Sherman, former commander of Nichols' unit, said one of his favorite memories is flying a pace car with Nichols to the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

"My happiest and saddest memories are now tied to him," said Sherman, who was in command and working as an instructional pilot when Nichols joined his unit.

"He had no enemies. He was one everyone wanted to be around. You just liked flying with him because you knew he was going to improve as a young pilot and get better every time you flew with him.

Sgt. Patrick D. Hamburger, 30, of Lincoln, Neb.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), Grand Island, Neb., U.S. Army;

Hamburger planned to propose to his girlfriend, but had a job to do first: a mission in Afghanistan.

He joined the Nebraska National Guard when he was a senior at Lincoln Southeast High School, but this was his first deployment, his brother Chris Hamburger told The Associated Press.

"He didn't have to go, and he wanted to go because his group was getting deployed. He wanted to be there for them. That's him for you," Chris Hamburger said, adding that Patrick always looked out for his two younger brothers and friends.

He was also the kind of guy who helped his girlfriend raise her 13-year-old daughter from another relationship, as well as the couple's own 2-year-old daughter, and planned to propose marriage when he got home, Chris Hamburger said.

Patrick Hamburger had been in Afghanistan less than two weeks and had arrived at Forward Operating Base Shank a few days before climbing aboard the helicopter to rush to the aid of an Army Ranger unit under fire from insurgents.

"It doesn't come as a total surprise that he was trying to help people and that's how it all ended up happening," Chris Hamburger said.

Sgt. Alexander J. Bennett, 24, of Tacoma, Wash.  He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kan., U.S. Army;

Bennett couldn't wait to deploy again after returning from spending a year in Iraq in 2009. So the reservist moved on his own from the Tacoma, Wash., area to Overland Park, Kan., to join Bravo Company.

"He wanted to be part of our unit when it deployed," said Sherman. "He was a typical young kid and liked to go out and have a good time with the guys."

Spc. Spencer C. Duncan, 21, of Olathe, Kan.  He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kan., U.S. Army;

Duncan had written to friends about how much he loved working as a door gunner on a Chinook helicopter. But The Kansas City Star reported that he also told friends that he missed Kansas sunsets and lying in a truck bed listening to the radio and cuddling with his sweetie.

He joined the military in 2008 and had been in Afghanistan since late May.

Story: Family, friends remember fallen troops as heroes

Tech. Sgt. John W. Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, Fla., U.S. Air Force;

If Elizabeth Newlun wanted to have a serious conversation with her son, Brown, she had to shoot baskets with him.

"There's nothing athletic about me, but I realized that you have to get into other people's comfort zone to get information," said Newlun, of Rogers, Ark., explaining that her son, an Air Force technical sergeant, was a "gentle giant" who "just loved anything physical, anything athletic."

Newlun said her son played football and basketball in high school and went to John Brown University on a swimming scholarship. He had wanted to go into the medical field and become a nurse anesthetist, but decided to join the military after seeing a video of a special tactical unit, she said.

The airman was a paramedic and ready to attend to the medical needs of anyone who was rescued, his mother said.

Arkansas state Rep. Jon Woods went to high school with Brown in Siloam Springs and remembered playing basketball and watching "Saturday Night Live" on the weekends.

"When you think of what the ideal model of a soldier would be, he would be it," said Woods. "He could run all day."

Staff Sgt. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, Calif., U.S. Air Force;

Tech. Sgt. Daniel L. Zerbe, 28, of York, Pa., U.S. Air Force.

Friends of Zerbe remembered him as driven but funny and easy to get along with.

Zerbe, a 2001 graduate of Red Lion Area High School in central Pennsylvania, did not say much about his Air Force duties, former schoolmate Jean Martin told The York Dispatch.

"He could make you laugh no matter what," said Martin, who dated him after high school.
John Smeltzer, a friend of Zerbe's, recalled playing football together starting in junior high, as well as fishing, snowboarding and engaging in other outdoor pursuits.

Martin said Zerbe wasn't the biggest player on the football or wrestling teams, but he worked hard to achieve his goals.

When Smeltzer last spoke with him in June, they talked about life and the birth of Smeltzer's daughter. He has struggled to come to terms with his friend's death.

"You wouldn't think this is going to come," he said.

The Associated Press left messages for Zerbe's relatives.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News contributed to this report.

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NBC fixer killed by a rocket in Libya

Mike Taibbi / NBC News

Salah Mohamed Askar, a fixer for NBC News in Libya before he was killed by a rocket near the town of Tigi, Libya on Aug. 4. He is seen here with NBC's Charlene Gubash during a recent reporting assignment.

By Mike Taibbi, NBC News Correspondent, and Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

NEW YORK – Salah went first.  He always did. He had a big man’s walk, his long strides straining the folds of his bright white “haik,” the traditional gown worn over trousers by Berber men.

He walked up to the group of men hunkered down on the ridge, some with binoculars trained on the valley below, and explained he was working with a team of journalists from NBC News. He asked permission for us to approach and shoot video of the artillery battle that had just begun. These were not fighters, they were just watching the fighting, but Salah was always polite. Sometimes, when he led us to the front where the battle was engaged, the answer was “no.” But this time he nodded back at us and gestured us forward with a hand signal telling us to keep our heads down. 

It was daybreak, July 29, on the outskirts of the city of Nalut in Libya’s western Nafusah mountain range. Salah had suggested the day before that we return to Nalut from Zintan, 80 miles to the east, because his contacts among the Nalut rebels told him they were ready to launch a major offensive against two stubborn strongholds of Gadhafi army troops in the valley towns of Takut and Gazayah. 

The Libyan Army troops were massing to attack the one rebel-controlled border crossing with Tunisia, an absolutely critical lifeline.  The government troops seemed to have an endless supply of Grad rockets available to lob into Nalut, sometimes 50 or 60 a night, turning the city into a ghost town. 

Salah had arranged a briefing with the rebel commander the night we arrived back in Nalut. He took part in the briefing and asked pointed yet polite questions as though he was part of our team.  Of course by then he was, and we learned the particulars of the rebels’ strategy and tactics.  Salah, a proud Naluti with two brothers among the city’s rebel fighting force, knew the lay of the land – the dozen or so ridgeline “fronts” where the artillery barrage would commence before rebel ground units would move into the two towns.

He knew the risks, as we did – that the rebels’ artillery attack would trigger heavy retaliatory fire from below.  We’d seen it weeks earlier, when one of those heavy return rounds exploded a few hundred yards from our position.  But though the risk is minimal that a Grad rocket, an old Russian missile, will actually hit a target as small as an artillery team a dozen miles away, Salah was especially cautious this morning and made sure we were, too. 

He put on the body armor he’d declined to wear during our previous visits to the front, and slung his assault rifle over a shoulder. Through the hours of the morning and into the early afternoon, the rebel teams who allowed us to join them aimed tank fire and dozens of screaming Grad rockets – the tanks and the rockets seized from Gadhafi’s troops – right back at those same troops.  When we saw the pickup trucks of the rebel ground forces below driving toward Takut, moving fast, Salah led us down the mountain, along winding switchback roads to the checkpoint outside the town. 

By the time we got there a celebration was already under way:  the Gadhafi troops had cut and run, from both Takut and Gazayah.  It didn’t get the rebels any closer to Tripoli, they were still 50 miles away at the closest point, and seemingly stalled, but without a successful offensive to take those two towns on this day, getting to Tripoli might have become nearly impossible.  Now the border with Tunisia was safe, the lifeline intact. The nightly bombing of Nalut was over; families who had fled to Tunisia could come home. 

Salah gave no hint of joining the celebration.  He brought us and our camera into the hospital where the dozens of wounded from both sides were being treated.  Both sides were still counting their dead.  When we got back to our rented house to prepare that night’s report we were discouraged to learn the city was once again without electricity…this time because the night before, as we slept, one of Gadhafi’s last incoming bombs had hit the main generating plant.  Our own small portable generator would only run our BGAN satellite transmitters, a camera and a couple of laptops and lights.  Salah disappeared without a word – his habit – and came back an hour later with a big capacity generator that could keep our whole operation juiced, even a couple of fans to turn the stale hot air into something like a breeze.

Two days later, the rebel revolution still stalled, but intact and invigorated for the next move, Salah led us across the border to Djerba, in Tunisia. Our assignment in Libya was done for the time being. He collected his mother, to bring her back home to Libya.

Then, last Thursday we got the news.  Salah, driving two rebel soldiers to the front instead of a news team, was gone.  One of those Grad rockets, fired from who knows where and targeted only by cursed bad luck, had hit his truck as it sped toward the town of Tigi, halfway between Nalut and Zintan. Salah and the two soldiers never knew what hit them.

A problem solver
Salah Mohamed Askar was 28, and unmarried.  His mother was concerned about that, and last winter talked him into coming home to Nalut from Sweden, where he’d worked as a driver for a multi-national company for three years.  “She wanted me to come home and find a nice Naluti girl,” he told us.  But then, five months ago, the war started.  In Nalut it began with a few dozen men with old hunting rifles ambushing a marauding team of Gadhafi mercenaries.  Salah had fired at two of them, killing one and wounding the other who got away. 

Across Libya a real civil war had started, with the NATO airstrikes greatly enhancing the prospects for a successful rebellion against Gadhafi’s 42-year-rule, and the Naluti men with hunting rifles morphed into the beginnings of an actual fighting force.  Salah’s two brothers joined the rebels fulltime. Salah, armed and ready, was delayed by a family crisis he was obliged to resolve.  When we arrived he became one of our drivers/fixers. A “fixer” is a journalist’s term for a hired assistant whose translation skills, local contacts and other capabilities are an essential part of foreign news coverage. 

Mike Taibbi/ NBC News

Salah Mohamed Askar, an NBC News fixer and driver in Libya, seen during some down time during NBC's most recent reporting assignment in July.

In fact, Salah spoke no English, it was on his “to do” list, as he’d quickly learned Swedish when he lived and worked in Sweden (Charlene Gubash, an Arabic speaker, was our principal translator).  But his other skills were immense, varied, and subtle.  He was one of those men who could fix things, a problem solver. 

When the cameramen on our team, Mitya Solovlov and Kevin Burke, sussed out each house we rented, Salah was right there with them, wiring a pump to draw water from the well (when the electricity worked) to fill the rooftop water tanks;  using cinderblocks to mount the air conditioner he removed from his own home so our workspace and sleeping space might be tolerable;  finding fresh bread or eggs or potatoes or a melon, all in short supply, to augment our diet of rice or pasta and tinned vegetables;  finding a hotplate or a skillet; filling our jerry cans with the cheapest gas for our vehicles that he could find from roadside trucks topped off in Tunisia. He cooked for us when we had no time on nights we were filing reports; he enjoyed whatever we cooked for him, usually adding something to spice it up. 

But it was his subtle skills that defined him.  He understood the roles filled by each member of the team – he found the cameramen the best vantage points to shoot from and found us the contacts we needed to stay informed in an environment fueled mostly by rumors and false hopes.  He monitored the Arab language news channels with a critical ear, and kept us constantly updated.  He could read motives and personalities in an instant, and after his nightly forays into town or to the mosque, he’d pass along only the information we needed that was demonstrably or believably true.  He was a driver by trade who in the space of days clearly understood what it meant to be a reporter.

And, in the three and a half weeks we worked with him, we came to know him. He was a kind and gentle man in a rough and cruel environment. A man who lived comfortably in a land buffeted by the scorching Sahara winds, but spoke dreamily of Sweden’s natural beauty.  He was a rules-driven man with a clear sense of fairness. When we’d get a hard time at a checkpoint in Zintan because we were using a “Naluti” as a driver and not a Zintani, Salah said quietly, “I wouldn’t stop any of you from coming to work in Nalut.  It is one Libya.”  Sometimes he would win a smile and a “go” gesture, sometimes they’d still hold us up, poring over our papers.  He sat in on all our interviews, taking part, asking important questions we’d neglected.  The quality of our information – and thus of our reporting – was better because he was there.

In quiet moments he would speculate endlessly about the course the war would take until, in his certain view, it would eventually end in Tripoli with Gadhafi gone.  He didn’t know when that would happen, didn’t indulge in soft-sided claims that it was merely weeks or even days away, as some soldiers (including one commander) kept telling us.
Ambition: A free Tripoli
Salah knew, as all warzone reporters know, that death is a big part of the story. At the information and military command centers where we’d solicit updates and alerts from our regular contacts, we’d often be told to come back later because the man we were seeking was off at a relative’s funeral.

But it never occurred to us that Salah would be a casualty.  We assumed he would become part of the new Libya, with some of the old mixed in (he wasn’t sure it was a bad idea to continue having separate schools for young boys and girls, or for some of the other old customs to be retained).

In his truck, barreling to the head of the convoy wherever we went, he played a mix tape of Arabic, Amazikh (Berber) and American music, and seemed to like it all.  We asked about his ambitions:  just a good job in a free Tripoli, he said.  Nothing more elaborate or detailed than that.  Like his truck, a Toyota Tundra with a club cab and a powerful V8 that he drove hard and well, Salah seemed to always have his motor running, ready to go.

And, ready to go again with us. When we left him, after a long and dawdling hotel brunch in Djerba, we traded the usual stay-in-touch-call-us-we’ll-call-you, keeping it light. But, with a man like Salah Mohamed Askar, we needed in the end to say something more: We told him he had our thanks and our respect…and that we’d be honored to work with him again, as the war headed to an end.  “Inshallah,” we all said at once.

He beamed a smile at us, those eyes sparkling with life and human connection. Then quickly turned to leave.

Click here to read more reports from Mike Taibbi and Charlene Gubash during their recent trip to Libya.

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Kandahar mayor killed by suicide bomber, latest in wave of assassinations (The Christian Science Monitor)

By Tom A. Peter Tom A. Peter – Wed Jul 27, 2:08 pm ET

Khandahar – A suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar at the municipality building on Wednesday. The most recent killing in a string of high-level assassinations, it has added to concern about leadership deficit in an area that remains fragile despite recent security gains.

The bomber entered the municipality building with a group of villagers who had come to speak with Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi about the demolition of homes built illegally on government land. When the mayor greeted the group, the suicide attacker detonated a bomb hidden inside his turban.

Although the government and NATO-led forces say they are making progress against the militant organization, the ability of killers to reach high-level officials in their homes and offices has shaken many Afghans’ faith in the government.

RELATED Recent string of assassinations in Afghanistan

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assassination, calling it part of their campaign to kill government officials this summer – although it remains unclear how many of the recent murders they actually conducted.

The loss of Mr. Hamidi, who spoke with the Monitor less than 24 hours before his death, is likely to take a hard toll on southern Afghanistan. He is the third official to be murdered in Kandahar in as many months and he is remembered by many to have been one of the region’s most honest political brokers.

“I’m here to work for Kandahar City. I owe this city because I grew up here, I was educated here, I ate from here, I had good times here, and I’m here to pay back the loan to my city,” said Mr. Hamidi on Tuesday afternoon.

String of assassinationsIn April Gen. Khan Mohammad Mujahid, police chief of the province, was killed by a suicide bomber in the city’s central police compound.

Earlier this month, Ahmad Wali Karzai, one of the president’s half brothers and a prominent powerbroker in Khandahar, was shot in his home by a member of his inner circle.

The mayor’s death adds to the province’s growing leadership deficit as officials seek to fill the power void left by Ahmad Wali. There was some speculation that Hamidi would replace the current governor in an effort to make up for the loss of the president’s brother.

Who was Hamidi?Hamidi spent nearly two decades in Virginia, before returning to his native Kandahar City, the second largest city in Afghanistan and the birthplace of the Taliban. When he took on his role as mayor four and a half years ago, the office was marred by allegations of corruption.

An accountant for most of his life, Hamidi had far more in common with Western politicians than he did with many of the warlords and powerbrokers in control of large parts of Afghanistan.

“When people would complain about the mayor, we would invite him to talk directly with the people in the provincial council office. Every time he was able to convince the people and us that he was right through legal reasons and acceptable methods,” says Haji Fida Mohammad, a member of the Kandahar Provincial Council.

Still, Hamidi had a reputation as someone who was not afraid to use force.

“I am strong enough to fight with corrupt Kandahari people,” Hamidi told the Monitor.

The shoe incidentLocal pharmacist Zoudin Barak remembers watching the son of a high-level government official drive his car the wrong way down a one-way street and park it so his car completely blocked the road. Even when a police officer came to ask the driver to move, he refused. Such disputes have often ended with drivers pulling guns on the police with impunity.

When the mayor happened upon this scene without his official entourage, Mr. Barak says he seemed undeterred and asked the man to move his car. When he refused again, the mayor took off his shoe and used it to bash off the man’s side view mirror. The man then moved his car.

“In our country, when you ask people politely they won’t listen or take it seriously. They won’t do anything until you force them to,” says Barak. “When they are the sons of warlords and high-level government officials, no one can stop them from breaking the rules. The police and courts can’t take any action, so in this case I thought the mayor was very good.”

Across Kandahar, residents have similar stories of the mayor intervening to stop people from breaking the law, even when it meant risking his own safety.

Afraid of the 'land mafia'Some worry that the next Kandahar mayor won’t stand up to powerbrokers and warlords like Hamidi did.

“It will be impossible to demolish the houses of people living illegally on government land now because government officials will be afraid this land mafia will kill them like the mayor,” says Qale Khan, a tribal elder in Kandahar.

Despite Hamidi’s reputation as an honest politician, he played a controversial role with the city’s high-end Aino Mina housing development. He made other decisions that led some residents to speculate he may not be as clean as widely believed.

Still, most Kandaharis are quick to say he worked harder than any previous mayor to develop the city.

“If we had a few people like him all our problems would be solved. I didn’t feel sorry for any of the other officials who got killed, but I felt sorry for him,” says Barak.

RELATED Recent string of assassinations in Afghanistan

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UK citizen killed in Yemen car bombing

The incident took place in AdenThe victim's name has not been releasedBritain has advised against travel to Yemen

(CNN) -- A British citizen who worked for a Yemeni company has been killed by a car bomb in the volatile country, the British Foreign Office and a Yemeni senior security official said Wednesday.

The explosion went off in the Aden province town of Mualla when the man turned on his vehicle, and the blast could be heard more than a mile away, the security official said.

The official said a bomb was hidden under the vehicle and he believes that al Qaeda was behind the attack.

"The way the attack took place only proves that al Qaeda has been watching his moves days prior to the attack," the official said. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has a strong presence in Yemen.

The Foreign Office says it is providing assistance to the victim's next of kin. However, authorities are not releasing the victim's name at the family's request.

Yemen has been wracked by anti-government protests and insurgent violence. The Foreign Office advised British citizens not to travel to Yemen, and urged all British nationals there to "maintain a heightened level of vigilance and keep a low profile at all times."

"We believe that terrorists continue to threaten further attacks including in Sanaa, Aden and other urban areas."

Journalist Hakim Almasmari and CNN's Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report

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