Damn I hate "friendly fire"

Its bad enough having to take on the insurgents without having to worry about getting hit by or hitting your own people.

The Department of Defense announced February 5th the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Feb. 2 in Ramadi, Iraq, of injuries sustained when they came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. [SIC] On April 4, 2007 the Army announced an ongoing unit-level investigation into the circumstances of the soldiers' deaths and that friendly fire is suspected.

Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz. McPeek was assigned to the 16th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Giessen, Germany.

Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont. McPeek was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Urban warfare is incredibly nasty.

That's the whole news release from DOD.

H/T Casualty Count News.

KBR driver shot dead by U.S. forces in Iraq

I need some help here. Never having been in combat, I wonder if this is common or specifically related to the type of fighting going on in Iraq. Its sad civilian drivers have to worry about being attacked and killed by insurgents, but now they have to worry about the US military too?

The U.S. military confirmed today that American forces at Camp Anaconda, the huge air base north of Baghdad, shot and killed a civilian contract truck driver.

A spokeswoman for KBR, a contracting subsidiary of Halliburton that was formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, said the shooting was under investigation.

Melissa Norcross, the KBR spokeswoman, said the company was not releasing the name of the dead driver or a second person in the truck who was wounded "to protect the individuals' privacy."

In Baghdad, Lt. Cmdr. Bill speaks said, "There was an escalation of force incident at Camp Anaconda on Feb. 5 (Monday) that resulted in the death of a civilian contractor. The incident is under investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Division and KBR."

An escalation of force incident normally means a driver approaching a checkpoint did not respond to military orders to approach slowly and stop.

"Sadly, 98 KBR employees and subcontractors have lost their lives, and more than 430 have been wounded by hostile action while performing services under the company's government contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait," Norcross said in an e-mail response to queries about the incident.

This comes on top of a report several Kurds were killed by friendly fire, and one British soldier.