The attackers, who U.S. commanders now suspect may have been American soldiers manning a checkpoint near the family home outside the town of Mahmudiya, then burned the bodies to cover up the crime, mayor Muayyad Fadhil told Reuters in an interview.




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More on this:

[quote]
07/03/2006 12:58:44 EST Ex-Soldier Charged in Iraq Rape, Killing
By TIM WHITMIRE
Associated Press Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Federal prosecutors charged a former U.S. soldier with murder and rape Monday following an investigation into the killing of an Iraqi woman and three members of her family.
Steven D. Green, a 21-year-old former private first class who was discharged from the Army "due to a personality disorder," appeared in a federal magistrate's courtroom in Charlotte Monday.
The charges grew out of a military investigation involving up to five soldiers in the March rape and killing of the woman in Mahmoudiya and three of her relatives, one of them a young girl believed to be about 5 years old.
Prosecutors said Green and others entered the home of a family of Iraqi civilians, where he and others raped the woman before Green shot her and her relatives. According to an accompanying affidavit, photos taken by Army investigators showed a burned body of "what appears to be a woman with blankets thrown over her upper torso."
FBI agents arrested Green on Friday in Marion, N.C., where he is being held without bond pending a transfer to Louisville, Ky.
The case is being handled by federal prosecutors there because Green, who served 11 months with the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., is no longer in the military. According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, he was given an honorable discharge "before this incident came to light. Green was discharged due to a personality disorder."
He faces a possible death sentence if convicted of murder.
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whaa. yougnest was 5.. thats messed up..

I don't know what happened there. The fact that all these charges about civilian violence by GIs these days is unprecedented. Is this a crackdown as a reaction from haditha, i heard iraqis themselves are doing idependent investigations as well as the pentagon.

but then again.. it was rape and murder and the guy had behavior problems i heard watching the news.. it is said he killed the parent and the 5 year old, raped the girl, then burned the building down...

well.. soldiers even from long ago used to do this..
attack enemy villages, slaughter the males, rape the females, take over territory.. what happened 5000 years ago, are happening now.. and i guess its human nature..

Originally Posted by JulesLee

and i guess its human nature..

I don't think so. It's just some idiot who went off his rocker.

This certainly isn't going to help the "hearts and minds" campain

This certainly isn't going to help the "hearts and minds" campain

But it sounds so familiar to the other hearts and minds campaign that is so infamous.

Shameful and that idiot must be tried for his alleged offense

How sad and shameful....