A soldier from Silver Spring, in Iraq less than a month, was killed in Mosul on Thursday when his unit came under small-arms fire.

Spc. Thomas K. Doerflinger, 20, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, known as the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from Fort Lewis, Wash.

Doerflinger enlisted in the Army after graduating in 2002 from Springbrook High School in Silver Spring. He was deployed to Iraq on Oct. 15, according to his family.

He was the second of four children of Richard and Lee Ann Doerflinger. Richard Doerflinger is the deputy director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Doerflingers, wishing to mourn their son's death in private, said in a statement that he was dedicated to the military.

"Our son Thomas was a smart, dedicated, wonderful young man who volunteered for the Army to serve his country and protect innocent people," they said. "He understood the risks of his chosen path, and gave his life doing what he had committed himself to doing -- standing against those who have no respect for human life. Even as we grieve for our loss, we honor the ideals he stood for and ask others to do the same."

His sister, Anna, told the Associated Press that he signed up shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, despite his parents' opposition. "He said, 'I just want to be helpful,'" she said. "He said he'd rather join then than in a time of peace.

"He was not your typical play-video-games kind of guy," she said. As he was leaving for Iraq, he told his sister not to worry. "He never wanted us to know the threat he was in," she said. "He was doing this because he wanted to."

Doerflinger's unit and Iraqi national guard units launched an offensive Thursday against insurgents in the northern city of Mosul.

Insurgents had stormed several Iraqi police stations and set them on fire in Iraq's third-largest city, an outburst of violence that military officials called revenge for the offensive in Fallujah.

Funeral arrangements will be set after Doerflinger's body is returned to the United States.