By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

ANOTHER Guam soldier has been killed in Iraq as violence continues to escalate in the war-torn Middle East country.
U.S. Army Private First Class John D. Flores, 21, was killed by small arms fire in Baghdad on April 23, the Department of Defense confirmed.
Flores, from the village of Barrigada, was originally assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany before he was sent to Iraq.
According to the Department of Defense, Flores died as a result of injuries sustained during combat operations.
Upon learning of Flores’s death, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo said she was deeply saddened that Guam has lost another son in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“In this time of sorrow, I join our people in offering condolences and prayers to PFC John Flores’s family, loved ones and friends,” Bordallo said in a statement.
The congresswoman described Flores as a fine soldier with a young family who served the nation with selfless dedication.
“He answered the call to duty of our nation and he paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom — we owe him a debt of gratitude. We honor his service and we pray for his family. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to his wife, Charlene, his daughter Chloe, and his extended family and friends,” Bordallo said.
The death of Flores comes as President Bush vetoed a bill that would have required troops to begin returning home by Oct. 1.
Last January, President Bush ordered 20,000 more troops to Baghdad in a last-ditch effort to break the cycle of sectarian violence in Iraq.
Bordallo and other Democrats in Congress had opposed Bush’s move, arguing that the Iraqi security forces have to take responsibility and provide security for the Iraqi people.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is now leading the military buildup of 21,500 more U.S. troops in Iraq.
Earlier, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told Bordallo that the Guam Guard can expect more deployments as Washington increases its reliance on the National Guard and the U.S. military as a whole.
Last year, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific also said an increase in missions for Guam’s troops is inevitable as the ongoing global war on terror continues to escalate.
The U.S. death toll in Iraq has already passed 3,000 and the deaths from Guam now stand at eight since the war in Iraq began in 2003.