Fourth Georgia guardsman dies in Iraq this week

ATLANTA - The military now says a fourth Georgia National guardsman has been killed this week in Iraq.

Specialist Michael Stokely of Loganville was killed by a bomb.

Three more members of the Georgia National Guard's 48th Brigade - which includes abut 150 members of a Gainesville-based unit - were killed Monday night when their Humvee overturned into a canal. The 48th has not lost 17 soldiers since it was deployed to the Middle East in May.

Eleven were killed in bombings from July 24-August 3.

Officials said they were from a Douglasville-based detachment of the First Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment and were part of a convoy conducting a night mission at the time of the accident.

Local officials, friends and family members identify them as 27-year-old Sergeant Thomas Strickland of Fairplay; 19-year-old Specialist Joshua Dingler of Hiram and Specialist Paul Saylor of Bremen.

(The Georgia News Network contributed to this story.)