Indiana soldier killed in Iraq

BATESVILLE, Ind. -- A roadside bomb exploded in Iraq as an American military convoy rolled past, killing a soldier from Indiana.\nSpc. Chad L. Keith, 21, died while traveling in a convoy on patrol in Baghdad, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. He was assigned to the 2-325th Infantry, Company D, based in Fort Bragg, N.C.\nKeith's death Monday raised the number of Americans slain by hostile fire in Iraq since the war began in March to 143, a figure that approaches the 147 killed in the 1991 Gulf War.\nHe was the third Indiana soldier slain by hostile action. Keith enlisted in the Army in 2000 after he graduated from high school in Batesville, about 48 miles west of Cincinnati.\n"He was very proud to be in the military," Kimberly Hitzges, Keith's mother, said Tuesday. "He had a lot of uncles who were in the military, and he wanted to serve his country."\nKeith was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Indiana with his family from Newark, Ohio.\nHitzges said she had just spoken to her son on the phone last week. "He was kind of hot and tired and ready to come home, but he was going to be there until the job was done," she said.\nWhen President Bush declared major combat operations had ended on May 1, the number killed in action stood at 114. Since then, guerrilla-style attacks have taken another 29 American lives.\nPentagon officials say the attacks are coming from a variety of anti-occupation forces, including former Baath Party members, paramilitaries, non-Iraqi fighters and remnants of Saddam Hussein's security forces.\nThe total number of Americans who have died in Iraq since the conflict began March 20 stands at 212, including the death Monday in Balad.\nThat number includes 69 deaths in accidents and other non-hostile circumstances.