Rocket Propelled Grenades

Iranian Revolutionary Guards launched their second tanker attack in two days in the Strait of Hormuz, hitting a liquefied petroleum gas carrier with rocket-propelled grenades. Gulf-based shipping officials said a Norwegian sailor was injured when grenades fired from speedboats slammed into the 55,173-ton Berge Strand's crew quarters. A U.S. Navy spokesman said the attack occurred 60 miles from the nearest patrolling U.S. vessels.

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities arrested and charged a 30-year-old U.S. Army veteran turned Middle East "freedom fighter" with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction - a rocket-propelled grenade - after allegedly joining Al Qaeda-linked forces fighting President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria. Eric Harroun was arrested after flying into Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, returning from the Middle East. Authorities said he had previously made "voluntary" statements to FBI agents about his activities fighting with Al Qaeda in Iraq's Al Nusra Front as part of an "RPG team" in Syria.

The rocket-propelled grenades used in a flurry of attacks against American forces in Iraq are among the world's most widely available weapons, and an armament of choice for guerrilla groups and terrorist organizations. Rocket-propelled grenades -- the most common model is called the RPG-7 -- were used in several attacks by anti-American Iraqi forces last week.

When he was in kindergarten, he would answer only to the name John Wayne. After high school, he battled wildfires in the rugged mountains of Northern California. And as an elite Navy SEAL, he went on nighttime raids in Afghanistan, missions both dangerous and top secret. Equal parts daring, determined and goofy, Jesse Pittman was as renowned for his practical jokes — often elaborate and largely unprintable — as he was for his bravery and discipline. Pittman, who spent most of his life in the small Mendocino County town of Willits , died Aug. 6 in Taliban territory when the Chinook helicopter that carried him and 29 other American troops was shot down.

As a teenage cadet with the Hawthorne Police Explorers, Eduviges "Duvi" Wolf was faced with a wall she couldn't overcome. It was a 6-foot-high wooden wall -- a head taller than her -- part of an obstacle course at the El Camino College athletic fields. Over the next six weeks, Wolf threw herself at the wall over and over again, for several hours at a time. Her arms and legs became black and blue with bruises. But she was ecstatic the day she finally clambered over it. The Army sergeant approached everything else in life with the same dedication and vigor, whether it was the Police Explorers, the military or motherhood, her friends and family said.

Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron W. Simons was taking a break while patrolling the desert city of Qaim in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, when he was killed last month. His team had reached what the military calls a "hardened site" -- a structure surrounded by sandbags and concertina wire, said his cousin John Widick. The Marines longed to shed their flak jackets, drink water and find refuge from the pale yellow desert, dry heat and coarse sand, he said.

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities arrested and charged a 30-year-old U.S. Army veteran turned Middle East "freedom fighter" with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction - a rocket-propelled grenade - after allegedly joining Al Qaeda-linked forces fighting President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria. Eric Harroun was arrested after flying into Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, returning from the Middle East. Authorities said he had previously made "voluntary" statements to FBI agents about his activities fighting with Al Qaeda in Iraq's Al Nusra Front as part of an "RPG team" in Syria.

Carol Tyndale wasn't surprised when her son Nicolas H.J. Gideon, then 19, joined the Army last summer. As a child growing up in Murrieta, he was always ready for an adventure, she said. He began riding motorcycles in second grade, leaving older boys in his dust. On his first ski trip, when he was 11, he headed straight for the most treacherous slopes. As a teenager, he loved skin diving, snowboarding, football, hockey and lacrosse. "He was all boy," his mother said. "So tough."

While he was still in high school, Joshua Hardt took one look at his future wife, Olivia, and told friends that some day he would be with her. " 'One day, I'll even marry her,' " she said he told her that he had bragged to his friends. "Joshua knew what he wanted and went for it." So after Hardt finished high school, he decided to enlist in the Army as a way to provide for his future family, Olivia Hardt said. The two were married in April 2007. On Oct. 3, Army Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, a cavalry scout, was among eight soldiers killed when hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked two remote U.S. outposts in the Kamdesh district of eastern Afghanistan's Nuristan province, on the Pakistani border.

When he was in kindergarten, he would answer only to the name John Wayne. After high school, he battled wildfires in the rugged mountains of Northern California. And as an elite Navy SEAL, he went on nighttime raids in Afghanistan, missions both dangerous and top secret. Equal parts daring, determined and goofy, Jesse Pittman was as renowned for his practical jokes — often elaborate and largely unprintable — as he was for his bravery and discipline. Pittman, who spent most of his life in the small Mendocino County town of Willits , died Aug. 6 in Taliban territory when the Chinook helicopter that carried him and 29 other American troops was shot down.

As a young boy curled in the crook of his father's arm, Nicanor Amper IV watched John Wayne war movies over and over, discovering deep comfort in the films despite the violence they featured. "For him, those movies were always about sticking up for the little guy, patriotism and doing the right thing," said his father, Nicanor Amper III. As he grew, the military gave him a sense of belonging. He pleaded with his father for a trip to Fleet Week, then a military helmet, then a Marine poster to put on his bedroom wall.

Taliban insurgents shot down a U.S. Chinook helicopter early today, killing 31 American troops and seven Afghans aboard, American and Afghan officials said. It was the war's greatest single-incident loss of military lives. UPDATE WASHINGTON - AP sources: Majority of those killed in helicopter crash were from Navy SEAL Team 6. The rare downing of an American military aircraft, in a province on the doorstep of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, represented a blow to Western efforts to establish calm as the United States and its allies begin drawing down forces in Afghanistan.

Reports that France has been secretly supplying weapons to Libyan rebels engaged in daily battles with Moammar Kadafi's forces in the Nafusa Mountains stunned the world. It also surprised the overall commander of the rebel forces, who said Thursday that his men had never received any such weapons. "Whoever gave us these arms should come here and tell us where he put them," said Col. Mokhtar Milad Fernana. Although the front in eastern Libya has grounded to a stalemate, rebels in the mountainous region in the west appear to be gaining momentum in their fight against Kadafi, as they regularly capture towns and villages that were under his control.

Army Sgt. Michael David P. Cardenaz was a larger-than-life figure, those who knew him say. A bald, bull of a guy, Cardenaz told a Colorado reporter in 2009 that he was an "old-school" soldier. By then, he said, he had twice been hit by shrapnel, and had survived what he described as dozens of close calls with improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades. And a fellow soldier had died in his arms, he said. Cardenaz was awarded numerous medals and commendations for his military service, including a Bronze Star.

While he was still in high school, Joshua Hardt took one look at his future wife, Olivia, and told friends that some day he would be with her. " 'One day, I'll even marry her,' " she said he told her that he had bragged to his friends. "Joshua knew what he wanted and went for it." So after Hardt finished high school, he decided to enlist in the Army as a way to provide for his future family, Olivia Hardt said. The two were married in April 2007. On Oct. 3, Army Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, a cavalry scout, was among eight soldiers killed when hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked two remote U.S. outposts in the Kamdesh district of eastern Afghanistan's Nuristan province, on the Pakistani border.

Carol Tyndale wasn't surprised when her son Nicolas H.J. Gideon, then 19, joined the Army last summer. As a child growing up in Murrieta, he was always ready for an adventure, she said. He began riding motorcycles in second grade, leaving older boys in his dust. On his first ski trip, when he was 11, he headed straight for the most treacherous slopes. As a teenager, he loved skin diving, snowboarding, football, hockey and lacrosse. "He was all boy," his mother said. "So tough."

Taliban insurgents shot down a U.S. Chinook helicopter early Saturday, killing 31 American troops and seven Afghans aboard, U.S. and Afghan officials said. It was the war's greatest single-incident loss of military lives. The casualties included members of SEAL Team Six, the special operations unit that carried out the raid in Pakistan this spring that killed Osama bin Laden, but none of the elite unit's members on the raid against the Al Qaeda leader were on the helicopter that went down, according to a person briefed on the casualties.