Two GIs Charged in Iraq Death

Two U.S. soldiers have been charged in the death of an Iraqi civilian and in an alleged attempt to cover up the killing, the U.S. military said Sunday.

The charges, filed June 6 but first publicized Sunday, were the latest in a spate of incidents in which American troops have been accused of wrongly killing Iraqi civilians. Among those cases were the killings in November of 24 people, including women and children, in the town of Haditha.

In the case made public Sunday, Spc. Nathan B. Lynn was charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed Ramadi resident, Gani Ahmad Zaben, on Feb. 15, the military said.

Lynn and Sgt. Milton Ortiz Jr., both members of the 1st Battalion, 109th Infantry (Mechanized) of the Pennsylvania National Guard, were charged with one count each of obstructing justice for allegedly conspiring with another soldier to put an AK-47 near the dead man’s body in an attempt to make it look as if he was an insurgent.

Ortiz also is charged with one count of communicating a threat during a separate incident March 8, in which he is accused of putting an unloaded firearm to the head of an Iraqi and threatening to send the man to prison for the rest of his life.

The U.S. military is investigating at least three other cases in which several American service members are suspected of killing civilians and detainees in Iraq, including the deaths in Haditha.

The accusations against the troops have caused tension with the new Iraqi government.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and other political leaders have complained that killings of civilians by American troops have become a regular occurrence.

Both soldiers in the latest case have been transferred to a military base in Baghdad.