WASHINGTON — A recently discharged Army private appeared in federal court Monday on charges that he raped and murdered an Iraqi woman after rounding up and killing three members of her family as part of a planned assault in the central Iraqi town of Mahmoudiya.
Steven D. Green, 21, was arrested Friday in Marion, N.C., after a four-day nationwide manhunt. Army investigators recently were told by soldiers in Iraq that Green, accompanied by three other soldiers, had committed the rape and slayings in March while another stayed at their guard post to monitor the radio.
If found guilty of murder, Green could be sentenced to death.
According to the FBI, Green was honorably discharged from the Army and returned to the U.S. before the Mahmoudiya allegations came to light. An affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Gregor J. Ahlers in Kentucky said military personnel files showed that a "personality disorder" led to the discharge, which apparently was approved at least two months ago.
Green's is the first case of alleged wrongdoing by American service members in Iraq to go through the U.S. civilian legal process. Ahlers' six-page affidavit -- submitted Friday in support of a request for an arrest warrant -- is one of the most detailed public accountings of abuse accusations from the Iraq war.
More than 30 soldiers have been implicated in the wrongful deaths of Iraqi civilians. Those incidents include the November deaths of 24 men, women and children in the western town of Haditha and the May killings of three detainees in a province north of Baghdad. Last week, the U.S. military said it had charged two soldiers in the February shooting death of an unarmed Ramadi resident.
The killings have fanned unease between Iraqi officials and the U.S. military, and the incident in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, is considered likely to further aggravate tensions because of its violent, sexual nature.
Ahlers said his information came largely from Army investigators, who interviewed at least three of the five soldiers allegedly involved in the Mahmoudiya incident. An Army official said that besides Green, none of the soldiers had been charged or detained but were under close supervision in Iraq.
Green and the other soldiers came from the 502nd Infantry Regiment, which is attached to the 4th Infantry Division.
