BAGHDAD — An Iraqi army medic testifying in a hearing to determine whether four U.S. soldiers will face a court-martial on rape and murder charges said Sunday that he saw a family of four who had been slain in their home, including a 14-year-old girl whose head and upper body had been burned and clothes torn away.
The medic, who was not identified for security reasons, testified on the first day of hearings by a U.S. military tribunal in a case that has outraged Iraqis. It is one of several instances of alleged abuses by U.S. troops that are under investigation.
Entering the family's house in the southern Baghdad suburb of Mahmoudiya on March 12, the medic said, he found the girl with a single bullet wound under her left eye and with her legs spread.
In an adjacent room, the medic said, he found the girl's 5-year-old sister, who had been shot, the bullet smashing the back of her head.
Next to the younger girl was the body of her father, Kasim Hamza Rasheed, who also had been shot in the head.
"The brain was on the floor, and parts of the head were all over the place," the medic said of Rasheed's body.
The mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhsen, had been shot repeatedly in the abdomen and chest, the medic said.
"I was sick for almost two weeks," he added.
Defense lawyers questioned whether the medic had the expertise to determine the cause of death. They suggested that the family members were already dead when they were shot, and that someone had arranged the bodies before they were found.
Defense lawyers also focused on whether the accused troops were suffering from combat stress after a barrage of attacks in the area, known as the "triangle of death."
Army Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, commander of the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, testified that three of the accused soldiers had sought help for combat stress. He estimated that a quarter of the soldiers' platoon suffered from the condition.
In February, a month before the family was slain, company commander Capt. John Goodwin, who was the officer in charge of the accused soldiers, had developed a "1,000-yard stare," Kunk said. Goodwin was sent to the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad for a break.
The U.S. military tribunal is similar to a civilian grand jury, and American officers will determine whether there is enough evidence to convene a court-martial for the soldiers.
