Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- A 24-year-old Athens-area man was the sole American soldier to die, along with 18 Iraqi children and teenagers, from a suicide bomb in Baghdad on Wednesday, military officials confirmed on Thursday.

Spc. Benyahmin Yahudah was said to have been giving out candies and toys to a group of children with his colleagues when a suicide bomber careened his sport utility vehicle into the crowd, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The attack killed a total of 27.

"We really haven't had the chance to digest the news," she said on Thursday.

Yahudah was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart.

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As a combat medic in the U.S. Army, Spc. Benyahmin Ben Yahudah fixed more than just cuts, scrapes and broken limbs.

"He also treated broken spirits," Brig. Gen. Ronald Silverman said Monday at a funeral service in Evergreen Memorial Park, as family and friends gathered to remember Yahudah, a soldier from Bogart who Silverman said was "much more interested in saving lives" than with taking them.

Yahudah was killed July 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, in a suicide bombing that also killed about 20 Iraqi children. The soldier was trying to move the children out of the area as they conducted a search, said 1st Sgt. James Baugh, who served with Yahudah in Baghdad.

Yahudah and the other soldiers enjoyed handing out candy and toys to the Iraqi children, Baugh said, though he was not doing so when he was killed, as previously thought. Yahudah's fiancee, Anne Armstrong, wrote in an e-mail that she had a whole box of candy waiting to be sent to him, at his request.

Yahudah "felt that saving lives was his calling," Silverman said, and he had pulled four soldiers from a burning vehicle in Iraq, saving three of them.

He also did all he could to save the fourth, Baugh said.

Respectfully called "Doc" by his fellow soldiers, Yahudah was "an outstanding medic, kind and caring," said Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, who came from New York to perform the service.

"He went the extra mile," Goldstein said. "He will be missed by all."

Yahudah was "an awesome guy, truly the best man that I have ever met or could ever hope to meet," wrote Armstrong, who planned to marry Yahudah this month when he returned home for leave. "Never in my life was I ever loved by anybody so much. He had such a passion for life, and truly loved what he was doing in Iraq."

"He was an outstanding soldier and an extraordinary medic," said Silverman. "He will serve as a role model and a hero."

Yahudah earned a Good Conduct medal, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his service.

Family friend Mark Kelly said the Bogart community "is both saddened and damn proud of this young man."

"He was one of ours," Kelly said, overcome with emotion.

Yahudah was born in Fulton County Sept. 27, 1980, to Absalom and Leah Yahudah. He was home-schooled in Hull and attended Athens Technical College.

He is survived by his mother, his fiancee and siblings Kirk Sims, Elaine Olga Adams, Bethsheba Baht Yahudah, Shoshanah Baht Yahudah, Yahosuah Ben Yahudah and Avigail Baht Yahudah; three nieces; and one nephew.

Yahudah had served in Iraq since January, his first deployment, Baugh said. Soldiers in his unit - the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart - will wear metal tribute bracelets to remember him, Baugh said.

Leah Yahudah, left, mother of U.S. Army Spc. Benyahmin B. Yahudah, and Kirk Sims, his oldest brother, sit at the soldier's funeral at Evergreen Memorial Park in Athens on Monday. Spc. Yahudah, 24, was killed in Iraq earlier this month by a suicide car bomber.

An honor guard from the U.S. Army Installation Support Platoon in Ft. Gordon carries the casket of Spc. Benyahmin B. Yahudah, killed in Iraq, at the soldier's funeral at Evergreen Memorial Park in Athens on Monday.