I have pinned down the date of this burning vehicle. Here is the original DigitalGlobe photograph used by Google Earth.

http://archive.digitalglobe.com/archive/showBrowse.php?catID=10100100033B8A04

It is dated Sep 07, 2004. You can see the smoke midway top to bottom, and half way from the center to left edge.

The cause of this fire does appear to be the result of an IED, followed by an attack with small-arms fire. Someone in Operation Iraqi Freedom whose job was Loss Reports, gave me the lead that pointed to the following report for that day.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/09/04-09-08c.htm

And finally, this report identified the casualty:

http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=7712