A former soldier discharged because of a "personality disorder" was accused in federal court of executing an Iraqi family so he and other troops could rape and murder a young woman they had been eyeing at a traffic checkpoint.
Steven Green, a skinny, 21-year-old former private, was led into court on Monday wearing baggy shorts, flip-flops and a T-shirt. He spoke only to confirm his identity and stared as a federal magistrate ordered him held without bond on murder and rape charges that carry a possible death penalty.
Green became the first person identified in the latest case of alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by US troops, horrific deaths discovered in a burned house near Mahmoudiya in March that military officials initially blamed on insurgents.
According to a 10-page federal affidavit, Green and three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based 101st Airborne Division had talked about raping the young woman, whom they first saw while working at the checkpoint. On the day of the attack, the document said, Green and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out of their uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman's house. Green covered his face with a brown T-shirt.
Once there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the family -- an adult male and female, and a girl estimated to be five years old -- into a bedroom, after which shots were heard from inside.
"Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone, `I just killed them. All are dead,'" the affidavit said.
The affidavit is based on interviews conducted by the FBI and military investigators with three unidentified soldiers assigned to Green's platoon. One of the soldiers said he witnessed another soldier and Green rape the woman.
"After the rape, [the soldier] witnessed Green shoot the woman in the head two to three times," the affidavit said.
One of the three soldiers interviewed said he was left behind to mind the radio at the traffic checkpoint. That soldier said Green and three others returned from the woman's house "with blood on their clothes, which they burned. Immediately after this, they each told [the soldier] that this is never to be discussed again."
An official familiar with details of the investigation in Iraq has told The Associated Press that a flammable liquid was used to burn the rape victim's body in an attempted cover-up.
The affidavit noted that prosecutors have photos taken by army investigators in Iraq of all four bodies found inside a burned house and a photo of a burned body of "what appears to be a woman with blankets thrown over her upper torso."
The age of the young woman was unclear. FBI documents estimated her age at 25, but a neighbor of the family said the rape victim was 14 and her sister was 10.
The Washington Post reported the rape victim was 15 and that her mother worried her daughter had attracted the attention of US soldiers at a checkpoint. The mother asked a neighbor if the girl could sleep at his house.
The neighbor agreed but the girl and her family were attacked the next day, according to the Post. The neighbor told the Post he was one of the first people to arrive at the house after the attack and found the girl dead in a corner, her hair and a pillow burned and her dress pushed up to her neck.
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