Nevada soldier killed in Iraq

Nineteen-year-old Pfc. Alejandro Varela of Fernley was searching for three missing comrades when his Bradley fighting vehicle ran over a roadside bomb, killing him and five others Saturday in Iraq, according to Varela's father.

"Their mission was to try to find the three missing American soldiers," Roger Varela said in a telephone interview late Monday.

He said two military officers came to his home at 7 p.m. Saturday to tell him that his son had been killed in action in western Baghdad.

A soldier who was in a vehicle behind Varela's had described the incident.

"The next thing he saw that Bradley go up 50 feet in the air. ... All six of them perished," Roger Varela said.

Alexandria Avant, the younger Varela's girlfriend, said she had last heard from him in an e-mail on May 12, the same day that the three U.S. soldiers went missing in an attack south of Baghdad that killed an Iraqi soldier and four U.S. soldiers, including 23-year-old Sgt. Anthony J. Schober of Reno.

Avant said Varela had written, "Hi. How are you. I'm doing pretty good. I'll see you soon. I love you."

The two met while they were students at Fernley High School, she said. Varela later received his general equivalency diploma, friends said. He had joined the Army with a friend.

"He wanted to do something different and new. It was an adventure," Avant said.

She said Varela was on his first tour in Iraq and was an infantryman in a cavalry company out of Fort Hood, Texas.

A news release Sunday out of Camp Victory in Iraq said six U.S. soldiers and one interpreter "were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated in the western section of the Iraqi capital" on Saturday.

"During the past week elements of this unit have found numerous weapons caches including grenades, small arms, ammunition and IED making material," the Multi-National Division statement read.

In addition, military officials said in the statement that Varela's unit found a safe house "used by insurgents to plan attacks and torture innocent Iraqis."

Varela's father said his son had lived with him in Fernley for the past seven years and before that had lived with his mother in California.

Kathleen Jameson, program coordinator of the Fernley Adult Education Center, said she learned of Varela's death Sunday morning from a family friend.

"He was very focused on getting his GED so that he could join the military, and he was very proud to join the military," Jameson recalled.

Varela was the 51st member of the U.S. military with ties to Nevada to die overseas in the nation's wars on terrorism.

The Department of Defense had not confirmed the six deaths Monday evening on its Web site.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.