Even after suffering a broken arm and shrapnel wounds across his body during a suicide bomb attack this week, 1st Lt. Christopher Rosebrock wanted to return to the battlefield.

"He wanted to go back out and help his guys," his stepfather, John Battershell, of Hicksville, Ohio, said Friday. "He's a pretty amazing kid. He was proud to be a soldier and he loved his country."

Lieutenant Rosebrock, 26, also of Hicksville, was being flown back to Fort Belvoir in Virginia Friday, Mr. Battershell said. The 2008 graduate of Bowling Green State University's business management program is one of several soldiers with ties to northwest Ohio injured or killed this week amid increased violence in Afghanistan.

LOST IN WAR: Area soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq

The attack that injured Lt. Rosebrock Wednesday occurred in a relatively peaceful area of northern Afghanistan. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least 13 people at a park, including three soldiers from Lieutenant Rosebrock's Ohio National Guard unit.

Among the dead was Sgt. 1st Class Shawn T. Hannon, 44, of Grove City. He was a 1991 graduate of BGSU, where he studied political science.

"He was one of the most well-respected guys I ever met," said Steve Palmer, a lawyer who worked with Mr. Hannon. "If somebody in the world needed help, he'd be there. He believed in what he was doing over there."

Mr. Hannon had been a soldier for nearly 20 years. A graduate of Capital University law school in Columbus, he had also been a lawyer for six years before joining the Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs as chief legal counsel last year. Survivors include his wife and their 9-month-old son.

Four other members of the unit were injured, including Lieutenant Rosebrock and Spc. Austin Weigle, 20, of Bryan, who remains in Afghanistan in stable condition, according to his mother, Mindi Weigle. Her son joined the Guard to follow in the footsteps of his father and three grandfathers, all of whom have served in the military, she said. He had just started his studies at BGSU last year when his unit was called up.

"He is very outgoing, very outspoken, and very kind," Ms. Weigle said. "We always said since he was little that he was friendly to a fault."

The soldiers were with the Ohio National Guard's 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which is based in Columbus but includes soldiers from across Ohio, the Guard said.

The unit was in Maimanah, capital of Faryab province, at the time of Wednesday's attack. Capt. Nicholas J. Rozanski, 36, of Dublin, Ohio, and Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey J. Rieck, 45, of Upper Arlington, Ohio, were also killed.

The suicide bombing was one of several deadly attacks across the war-torn nation this week. The Taliban claimed responsibility. The bomber's target was unclear.

The increase in violence comes at the start of the spring fighting season. The Taliban are targeting Afghan and NATO security forces as they fight to assert their power and undermine U.S. efforts to build up the Afghan military.

A separate roadside bombing Tuesday killed Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown, a 26-year-old Columbus resident who spent part of his youth in Toledo and still has family here. Sergeant Brown was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, after spending nearly a year in Iraq.

The casualties are a stark local reminder of the ongoing violence in Afghanistan.

"People don't even realize sometimes there's still a war going on," Mr. Battershell said. "We just want the people that lost their sons and family members to know we're reaching out and praying for them."

The Ohio infantry brigade has six battalions, with four based in Ohio and two in Michigan. It sent 3,600 soldiers to Afghanistan last summer for what was scheduled to be a yearlong deployment.

The mobilization was the 37th's largest since the Korean War, according to the Ohio National Guard. The soldiers were sent to help with counterinsurgency operations and work with Afghan security forces.

In 2005, Lima Company, a Columbus-based Marine reserve unit, lost 22 Marines and a Navy Corpsman in Iraq, including nine in one bombing. Fifteen of the 23 were from Ohio.

This week, gunmen in Afghanistan also attacked an outpost of a government-sponsored militia and killed 10 members of the security force, and another suicide bomber killed two people and wounded 16 others Thursday.

Also overseas this week, Tiffin-born airman Nathan Edward Smith, 21, died Wednesday morning after being injured in a motorcycle accident March 31 near Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, where he was stationed, according to the base's Web site.

Arrangements are pending at Hoffmann-Gottfried-Mack Funeral Home & Crematory in Tiffin.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Tony Cook at: tcook@theblade.com or 419-724-6065.

First Published April 7, 2012, 5:46 a.m.