KXLY -- SPOKANE -- A Spokane man who was serving with the US Army as a combat engineer in Iraq was killed by an IED strike on August 26th, family members report.

Specialist Carlo Alfonso of Alpha Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, based at Baumholder, Germany was killed by an IED which critically wounded one of his fellow soldiers, his wife said in an e-mail Friday afternoon.

"I am so thankful to them and the Army for being their through this," Rosemarie said of her husband's fellow soldiers.

Alfonso came to the United States in 1997 with his mother. He met his wife Rosemarie in high school. They dated, later married and now have a two-year-old son Kyle Alfonso.

Alfonso joined the Army and while he wasn't a U.S. citizen yet he "was proud to be a soldier and to serve for this country and thanks to the military he will become one very soon."