Pearl soldier killed in Afghanistan

A soldier from Pearl was killed Friday during combat in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Matthew Ingram, 25, died of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. The blast occurred while his unit was under small-arms fire from enemy forces, according to a news release Sunday evening from the Department of Defense.

Ingram was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Ingram was serving his second tour of duty and had been in Afghanistan since May. His first tour was in Iraq from August 2004 to July 2005.

He enlisted in the Army in 2003.

At least three other service members with connections to Mississippi have died overseas in the last month.

On Aug. 1, two Mississippi National Guard soldiers were killed in Afghanistan.

Sgt. 1st Class Severin Summers, 43, who recently had been living in Bentonia and Natchez, and Sgt. 1st Class Alejandro Granado, 42, of Longview, Texas, were killed by an improvised explosive device in Qole Gerdsar, Afghanistan.

Summers and Granado were assigned to the Mississippi Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group, based in Jackson.

Summers left for Afghanistan on July 2 - a repeat trip for the Special Forces soldier and Ranger who has served nearly 20 years in the military.

Army Staff Sgt. Johnny Roosevelt Polk died July 25 from wounds he suffered when his vehicle was struck by an anti-tank grenade July 23 in Iraq. The 39-year-old was a Gulfport native.