MORTAR ROUND KILLS PROMINENT NEW JERSEY SURGEON IN IRAQ

Well-known American surgeon killed in Iraq
Mortar round explodes near his living quarters on Christmas Day

The Associated Press
updated 11:07 p.m. CT, Fri., Dec. 26, 2008
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28395779/

TRENTON, N.J. - A prominent New Jersey doctor has been killed in Iraq, the Defense Department said Friday.

Maj. John P. Pryor was a well-known trauma surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. According to the Pentagon, Pryor died Christmas Day when a mortar round hit near his living quarters.

Pryor's colleagues say they're devastated by the loss of the New York City native. Pryor, who was 42, was a married father of three.

He wrote of his experiences as a surgeon confronting violence in Iraq and inner-city Philadelphia in articles published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post.