Army officer who ran prison gets 2-year term

Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for possession of classified materials, disobeying an order and having an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter.

Steele was cleared of more serious charges of aiding the enemy during his tenure in 2005 and 2006 as warden at Camp Cropper, which held ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and other high-profile prisoners. Prosecutors alleged that Steele allowed some prisoners to use his cellphone to make unauthorized, unmonitored calls.

The reservist will forfeit his salary and be dismissed from the Army.

The U.S. military also reported the deaths of two soldiers: one killed in a bombing Thursday in southern Baghdad, and a second who died of an illness Wednesday. The deaths brought to 3,832 the number of American military personnel killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to icasualties.org.

In northern Iraq, Murat Karayilan, the purported leader of Turkey’s separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, warned that Turkish oil pipelines might be attacked if Turkey sent soldiers across the border to pursue the Kurdish rebels.