Tomales High grad killed in Iraq

Jake Robert Velloza, an Army soldier from Inverness, was killed Saturday in Mosul, Iraq, relatives said.

Velloza, 22, a football and baseball star at Tomales High School, had joined the Army in 2006, his grandfather told the Marin Independent Journal.

The soldier’s parents, Bob and Susan Velloza, received notification of their son’s death early Sunday from an Army major from Travis Air Force Base who came to their Inverness home, said the grandfather, Richard Velloza.

Jake Velloza was one of two soldiers killed when a lone gunman opened fire on a group of Americans in Mosul, a Sunni insurgent stronghold north of Baghdad, Richard Velloza said.

The Pentagon had not issued an official notice of Velloza’s death on Monday.

Tomales High football coach Leon Feliciano said Velloza played wingback, defensive back, kick returner and kicker on a team that won the 2002 North Coast Section Class B championship with an 8-4 record, the I-J reported.

The Associated Press reported that an Iraqi soldier opened fire on a U.S. military team Saturday, killing two American soldiers and wounding three. The attack sharpened worries about the extent of militant infiltration in Iraq’s security forces, military officials said.

Iraqi officials described the attacker, who was killed in the gun battle, as a soldier who also served as a Sunni Muslim preacher for his unit near Mosul.