Military to open new investigation into battle that killed nine soldiers

This is the headline of an article in the Mideast edition, Stars & Stripes, Thursday, October 1, 2009

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has ordered a new investigation into a 2008 firefight that claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by senior commanders.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the U.S. Central Command, has appointed Richard Natonski, a Marine Corps lieutenant general, to handle the inquiry into events surrounding the battle at Wanat in Afghanistan, the command announced Wednesday. All the soldiers killed in the battle on July 13, 2008, were members of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment based in Vicenza, Italy.