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Two soldiers pleaded guilty to murder charges in separate cases involving the deaths of Iraqi civilians that have tarnished the reputation of US forces in the country.
Sergeant Paul Cortez pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the execution of her family in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, on March 12 last year, his lawyer William Cassara said.
“He felt it was in his best interest, he wanted to accept responsibility and he wants to move forward in getting this behind him,” Cassara told AFP.
Cassara would not disclose the details of the plea agreement but said Cortez had agreed to cooperate in the trials of the remaining three accused soldiers.
He awaits sentencing in the Christian County jail outside of Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
Specialist James Barker, 23, who pleaded guilty in November, was sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors said the five soldiers spotted Abeer Kassem Hamza al-Janabi on the street and plotted to break into her home to rape her.
“They gathered together over cards and booze and came up with a plan to rape and murder that little girl,” Captain Alex Picklands said at a military hearing held in Iraq.
Once there, they killed her parents, Kassem Hamza Rachid al-Janabi and Fakhriya Taha Mohsine al-Janabi and six year old sister, Hadeel Kassem Hamza al-Janabi.
Then they raped the girl, shot her and set fire to her body.
The alleged ringleader of the group, former army private Steven Green, pleaded not guilty in civilian court in November. A trial date has not yet been set.
Green served with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq but was dishonorably discharged in May with a “personality disorder.”
Also charged in the case are private Jesse Spielman and private Bryan Howard.
In a separate case, heard at the US Marines base in Camp Pendleton, southern California on Thursday, a 25-year-old Marine admitted charges of unpremeditated murder connected to the death of an Iraqi civilian in April last year.
Trent Thomas had earlier denied murder following the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, who was allegedly dragged from his home in Hamdania on April 26 last year and shot dead by US servicemen.
However, Thomas changed his plea during a pre-trial hearing admitting charges including unpremeditated murder, conspiracy, making a false statement and assault. Thomas, who faces a maximum prison term of life without parole, will be sentenced on February 6.
The plea means five of the eight servicemen implicated in the killing have now admitted charges connected to Awad's death.
The case is unconnected to an investigation into the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November 2005.
The military filed murder charges against four marines last month in connection with the case. Prosecutors allege Marines went on a rampage after one of their colleagues was killed in an attack.
