Mass. native reportedly killed in Iraq

A 23-year-old soldier from Western Massachusetts has died in Iraq, the Greenfield Recorder reported yesterday.

Ari Brown-Weeks, who was stationed with the Army's 82d Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., was killed Sunday in a truck accident, the paper said, attributing the information to Brown-Weeks's father, Jon Weeks.

Brown-Weeks's parents live in the small Franklin County town of Leyden. He was married, and his wife lives in Maryland, according to the paper. Neither household could be reached last night.

Kevin Courtney, superintendent of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, told the Globe that Brown-Weeks attended Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield at one time, but did not graduate from the district.

The Army announced Tuesday that seven paratroopers from the 82d Airborne died early Monday when their truck veered off an elevated highway in western Baghdad. The military has not released the names of the soldiers killed in that accident, in which two detainees also died. It was not clear last night if it was the same accident in which Brown-Weeks died.

JOHN C. DRAKE