American Soldiers Arrested For Rape/Execution Of 14-Year Old Girl And Her Family
July 11, 2006

The U.S. military has identified the four soldiers charged with raping an Iraqi teenager and murdering her and three family members. A military official named them on Monday as Sergeant Paul Cortez, Specialist James Barker and Privates First Class Jesse Spielman and Bryan Howard. A fifth soldier, Sergeant Anthony Yribe was also charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the crime.

Prosecutors say the troops conspired with Steven Green, who was arrested last week and charged as a civilian with rape and murder. Green was honorably discharged from the Army after being diagnosed with a “personality disorder.”

The details of the case that have emerged so far paint a harrowing picture of premeditated brutality by US soldiers in Iraq.

According to an affidavit based on sworn statements from several members of Green’s infantry unit, the soldiers planned the attack after noticing the girl, Abeer Qasim Hamza, at a US checkpoint in the town of Mahmudiyah. On March 12th, the soldiers broke into her family’s home. Some of them had been drinking and all but one had disguised themselves in dark clothing.

Green herded Abeer’s mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhsen; her father, Kasim Hamza Rasheed; and her five-year old sister Hadel into a room and shot them with an AK-47 rifle. Green and another soldier then raped Abeer, shot her, and set her body on fire in an apparent effort to cover up the crime. Abeer had reportedly expressed concerns to her mother because the soldiers had made advances towards her. A newly-released copy of her identity card shows that she was fourteen years old. For more than a week since the killings came to light US officials have claimed she was twenty.

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/7/11/iraqi_journalist_details_family_accounts_of