MIAMI -- A soldier from Miami and two others were killed in Iraq over the weekend, reportedly while giving toys to children.

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The latest casualties, confirmed in an Army statement Tuesday morning, were Pfc. Marius Ferrero, 23, of Miami; Cpl. Christopher J. Nelson, 22, of Rochester, Wash.; and Cpl. Jason T. Lee, 26, of Fruitport, Mich.

All were based in Fort Lewis, Wash., and were members of the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

They died Sunday when an improvised explosive device was detonated in Baqouba.

"It's terrible," Ferrero's Mother, Maribel, said. "It's very hard, very hard to believe."

The grieving mother remembered exactly what she told her son the day he joined the Army.

"If you go, you have to know that if they ask you to go, they tell you to go to the war, you have to go," Maribel Ferrero said she told her son. "He said, 'That's OK, Ma. Nothing's going to happen to me.'"

Two weeks ago, Marius Ferrero made an unscheduled trip home after his grandfather died.

"He asked us to give him a Thanksgiving dinner," his brother, Manuel, said. "We always had an age difference, but this last time he was like, grown up and we really bonded for one last time."

Family members said Marius Ferrero was happy to be home, but scared to go back.

"I told him 'Bendiciones, God bless you, and take care of yourself," Maribel Ferrero said.

It was the last time she would see her son. Four days after he left Miami, his mother got a phone call and rushed home.

"When I came in and saw these two military guys I said, 'Oh my God, it can't be. It can't be my son," she said. "It was him."

Officials said a suicide bomber killed Marius Ferrero, two other soldiers and three Iraqi children.

"They were handing out some toys for the kids over there, and then this guy came over with a bomb jacket on, and he exploded himself," Maribel Ferrero said.

Marius Ferraro won't be home for Thanksgiving, but his family is grateful for his service and the last precious moments they spent with him at home.

"We love him and we want him to come back," Maribel Ferrero said.