Veteran faces Iraq murder charges

Four soldiers are alleged to have plotted to carry out the attack
A former US soldier has been arrested and charged with killing four Iraqi civilians after raping one of them, the US Justice Department said.
Prosecutors say Steven Green, 21, and other troops raped a young woman before killing her and three relatives in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, in March.

A military inquiry into the incident is the latest in a series into alleged abuses by US troops in Iraq.

Mr Green, a former army private, was arrested recently in North Carolina.

He faces a possible death penalty if convicted.

Shots heard

A statement from the US attorney in Kentucky says Mr Green is charged with going to a house near Mahmoudiya with three other people to rape a woman living in the house.

I just killed them. All are dead

Affidavit
He allegedly shot and killed a man, a woman and a five-year-old girl and after raping another woman, he is alleged to have shot and killed her, the statement said.

According to an affidavit, Mr Green took the family into a bedroom, from where shots were heard.

"Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone, 'I just killed them. All are dead," the statement says.

Another affidavit said Mr Green, who belonged to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, had been discharged from the army "due to a personality disorder" before the rape and killings were known about, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The suspects belong to the same unit as two soldiers kidnapped, tortured and killed by insurgents south of Baghdad last month.

Some reports suggested that this event may have spurred soldiers to come forward with information about the killings.

Mr Green is due to appear in court at a detention hearing in Charlotte, North Carolina, on 10 July.

WHERE ARE THOSE ON THIS FORUM THAT DENIED THIS EVER HAPPEND. I PRAY THAT ALLAH BRINGS FORTH MUJAHIDEEN FROM WITHIN IRAQ THAT WILL BRING FORWARD ALLAHS JUSTICE FOR THE CRIMES COMMITED BY THE ARMIES OF KUFFAR IN THIS WORLD. LIBERATORS, MORE LIKE SCUM THAT DESERVE THE PUNISHEMENT THEY RECIVE FROM THE IRAQI MUJAHIDEEN.