Worldandnation: Al-Qaida group claims it ambushed convoy

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Al-Qaida group claims it ambushed convoy

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 19, 2007

CAIRO - An al-Qaida-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed responsibility Thursday for an attack on a convoy of the National Democratic Institute that killed a 28-year-old American woman and three security contractors.

The group identified her as Andrea Parhamovich of Perry, Ohio.

Parhamovich, a graduate of Marietta College in southeast Ohio, had been working with NDI in Iraq since late 2006 advising Iraqi political parties.

Tom Perry, spokesman for Marietta College, knew Parhamovich when she worked in the liberal art school's media relations office as a student.

"We saw what an excellent person she was, and she obviously had a passion for something and wanted to go there and be a part of it," Perry said. "We're proud she wanted to do this. It shows it's not just the soldiers who are in harm's way."

A statement was posted on a Web forum often used by Sunni insurgents. Its purported author - Islamic state in Iraq - is considered al-Qaida in Iraq's political arm.