Friday, September 04, 2009 LOS ANGELES: The investigation into a deadly Los Angeles wildfire became a homicide probe on Thursday as authorities revealed that the mammoth blaze burning near the city was caused by arson. As weary crews tightened their grip on the monster inferno, which has been blamed for the deaths of two firefighters since it erupted on August 26, officials confirmed the blaze was set deliberately. "Arson investigators have concluded that the fire was the result of an act of arson," said US Forest Service official Rita Wears."The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department homicide bureau has initiated a homicide investigation due to the tragic deaths of the two Los Angeles County firefighters as the result of this fire." The two firefighters Ted Hall, 47, and Arnie Quinones, 35 were killed when their truck plunged down a mountainside as they battled flames in a remote location on Sunday.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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