LEMOORE, Calif. A 20-year-old Marine from Lemoore was among eight Marines killed in Iraq in the deadliest attack against the U-S military in six months.

The Pentagon says Lance Corporal Jeremy Bow was killed Saturday when a car bomb exploded next to a truck outside the city of Fallujah in Iraq's Al Anbar province.

The attack came as U-S forces prepared for a major assault on the insurgent stronghold in the city.

Bow was the first member of the military from Kings County, and the fifth from the San Joaquin Valley, to die in the Iraq war.