DENVER -- A 22-year-old Highlands Ranch Green Beret was killed in Afghanistan this week, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

Staff Sgt. Christopher M. Falkel died Monday in Deh Afghan while his unit was conducting combat operations.

The DoD said that Falkel's unit was engaged by enemy forces in small arms fire when he was hit.

After graduating from Thunder Ridge High School, Falkel joined the Army in October 2001. He began special forces training in 2002 and graduated a year later, after completing courses in Arabic language and survival, evasion, resistance and escape, the Army said. Falkel had been awarded a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and other medals.

Falkel was a weapons sergeant assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, at Fort Brag, N.C. He was deployed to Afghanistan in June.

His parents, Jeffrey and Dianne Falkel, released a statement after their son's death.

"Two parents could not be more proud of their son," the statement said. "He was very, very special and dedicated and considered it an honor to serve his country."

Christopher Falkel's best friend and childhood neighbor, Matthew Sahagun, told the Rocky Mountain News that Falkel was the epitome of a tough, principled soldier.

"Chris was a warrior," Sahagun said Wednesday. "Since an early age he always had it in him. He was brave beyond belief and always by your side if you needed him."

Sahagun said Falkel's other interests included snowboarding and driving fast in his 1993 Acura Integra.

"The only thing that ticked me off about him -- he was always better than me," Sahagun said with a smile, himself a member of the Marine Corp.

Falkel is the second serviceman from Colorado to be killed in Afghanistan in six weeks. Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz, 25, of Littleton was killed on June 28 during what the military described as a counterterrorism operation. He was a member of an elite Navy SEAL unit.

A purported al-Qaida-made video shown this week by Al-Arabiya television shows what appears to be Dietz's Department of Defense ID card.

It also shows other captured U.S. gear, including a laptop, an M-16, military radios and a global positioning satellite display.

The authenticity of the videotape could not be confirmed. Air Force Capt. Lennea Montandon, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar, said the military would not comment because it had not seen the broadcast.