Unit size About 80 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel Leader Col. Todd J. Ebel Location of deployment Al Anbar province, Iraq Deployed date Feb. 16 Returned date Sunday

A soldier from Martinsville was killed last week in a non-combat related incident in Iraq, the Department of Defense announced today.

Pfc. Bradley S. Coleman, 24, died Oct. 29 at Qayyarah Airfield from his injuries, according to a Department of Defense news release.

No other details were provided. The incident is under investigation.

WASHINGTON U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia wants the Pentagon to freeze up to $300 million in contracts with companies the military is hiring to place pro-U.S. news stories and entertainment programs in the Iraqi media.

Cargo transfer companies from Fort Story and Fort Eustis will deploy to Iraq on Wednesday, according to an Army press release.   The 119th Inland Cargo Company will deploy for one year to Balad, Iraq. There will be a departure ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Fort Story gym in Virginia Beach.

On good days, they were a moving target. On bad days, their Humvees sat motionless for hours on Iraqi roads. Waiting for explosives experts to detonate roadside bombs. Waiting for convoys bunched up ahead of them to clear out. Waiting for the tractor trailers they escorted to fix a flat, or recover from a fender-bender.

The Rev. David V. McGuire has relocated often as a Roman Catholic priest, but the one-time Ocean View clergyman has been issued a gas mask for his next post, an air base in Iraq. McGuire left Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Norfolk last year to become an Air Force chaplain after the service raised the top age for clergy recruits from 42 to 48. He was 47.

By Mike Allen, Politico.com DENVER The conservative group Vets for Freedom is launching a $1.1 million ad buy during the Democratic National Convention, using video of Iraq war veterans to take Barack Obama to task for not giving the surge policy sufficient credit for improvement in battleground conditions.

By Del Quentin Wilber and Karen DeYoung WASHINGTON Federal prosecutors have sent target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, indicating a high likelihood the Justice Department will seek to indict at least some of the men, according to three sources close to the case.

NORFOLK The 17 0-foot gray hull glided up the Khawr Abd Allah River on Wednesday, sailors in body armor standing ready at twin .50-caliber guns. Even the vessel's name implied strength - Firebolt.

An Army soldier from southwest Virginia was killed Sunday in Iraq, the Defense Department said Monday.

Sgt. Kenneth B. Gibson, 25, of Christiansburg died in Tarmiyah, Iraq when an improvised explosive device detonated near him, a Defense Department statement said.