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Among 5 charged are two sergeants
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 11, 2006
BAGHDAD - Two sergeants are among five American soldiers charged in the alleged rape and slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killing of three of her relatives, the U.S. military said Monday in releasing the identities of the suspects. A previously discharged soldier had been arrested in the case last month and charged with rape and murder. The military announced Sunday that it charged five more men after an investigation into allegations that soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division raped and killed the woman and fatally shot her father, mother and sister at their home in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. It didn't identify the five until Monday. Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard are accused of rape and murder and several other charges. They could face the death penalty if convicted. A fifth, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, is charged with failing to report the attack but is not alleged to have been a direct participant. The five will face an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, to determine if they should stand trial. They are charged with conspiring with former soldier Steven D. Green, who was arrested in the case last month in North Carolina. Green has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder and is being held without bail. The March 12 attack was among the worst in a series of cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians. An al-Qaida-linked group claimed that it killed three U.S. soldiers last month and mutilated two of their bodies to avenge the rape and slayings, an institute that monitors extremists Web sites said today. The Internet posting by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of several Islamic extremist groups, showed two mutilated bodies from the June 16 attack near Youssifiyah, according to a statement by the SITE Institute. U.S. investigators had said there was no evidence linking the two incidents.
[Last modified July 11, 2006, 01:06:26]
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