US soldier described rape and murders, Iraq hearing told

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A US military investigator has said that a soldier had confessed to him that he and a comrade had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before another suspect raped her and killed her family.

Testifying at a hearing that will decide whether to charge five servicemen with rape and murder, Special Agent Benjamin Bierce said 23-year-old Specialist James Barker had given a detailed account of the alleged rape and massacre.

According to Barker's sworn written statement, which was given to the probe panel, on March 12 soldiers had been drinking Iraqi whisky mixed with an energy drink and practising golf swings at a checkpoint south of Baghdad.

One of the men, 20-year-old Specialist Steven Green, said that he "wanted to go to a house and kill...