Military Misconduct

Embarrassed by what it called "a disgraceful disciplinary aberration," the Israeli military announced Friday that it would punish soldiers who staged a pro-settler demonstration during their swearing-in ceremony at Jerusalem's Western Wall. Thursday's protest reflected fears by right-wing nationalists that the conservative-led government would eventually yield to U.S. pressure to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and evict Jewish settlers from the West Bank. The young soldiers, who were being sworn in to an elite infantry unit, the Kfir Brigade, held up banners declaring their refusal to obey orders to enforce any such decision.

British authorities are investigating 33 allegations of abuse, including rape, torture and assault, by British soldiers who served in Iraq, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday. One claimant says he was raped by two British soldiers; another claims he was sexually humiliated by male and female personnel. Others allege they were stripped naked and photographed in the same way as detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, where abuses of prisoners by American troops helped fuel anti-U.S. sentiment.

A Marine staff sergeant was ordered Monday to stand trial on charges stemming from the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha. Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich is being charged directly with the deaths of several of the Iraqis and indirectly with the other deaths for failing to supervise his Marines as their squad leader. Under a decision by Lt. Gen.

A former Marine counter-intelligence sergeant testified Tuesday that special operations Marines fired into oncoming civilian traffic in Afghanistan last March even though he saw no evidence that their convoy was fired upon. Appearing before a rare military court of inquiry, Nathaniel Travers, a former staff sergeant, said Marines in his convoy were rushing back to their base after a car bombing when Marine Humvee gunners fired into civilian vehicles on a highway in eastern Afghanistan.

An Israeli army psychiatrist was convicted of trying to sell military secrets to Iran, Russia and the Islamist group Hamas, a court official said. In a plea bargain, Maj. David Shamir, a 45-year-old reservist, told Tel Aviv District Court that he contacted "foreign agents" with the intent to pass on information about Israel's wartime evacuation and medical plans, the official said. Iran and Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, are avowed enemies of the Jewish state.

Three Marines and an Afghan translator testified Wednesday that their convoy came under fire in Afghanistan after a car bomb attack in March, prompting return fire as the Marines tried to escape what they called the "kill zone." As many as 19 Afghans were reported killed. The testimony came on the second day of a court of inquiry examining the incident.

A Marine who fired at least 200 machine-gun rounds during a March incident that left as many as 19 Afghans dead will not testify before a special court of inquiry unless he is granted immunity, his civilian lawyer said Thursday. Fellow Marines have testified that, after a car bomb attack on their convoy in eastern Afghanistan, Sgt. Joshua Henderson fired his M240 in response to what U.S. forces believed was enemy small-arms fire. Henderson "has nothing to hide," attorney Charles W.

An investigator expressed frustration Thursday at what he said were incomplete and sometimes inconsistent accounts by Marines involved in a March shooting in Afghanistan that left up to 19 Afghans dead. "We were trying to put pieces together and some of them just don't fit," David Kurre, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, said on the eighth day of testimony in a court of inquiry reviewing the incident.

Two Afghan men testified Tuesday that a Marine special operations convoy fired on their vehicles without provocation during an incident last March in which as many as 19 Afghans were reported killed. Testifying from Afghanistan by video link, the men told a court of inquiry that they had pulled their vehicles to the side of the highway when the Marines suddenly opened fire. They said they did not see anyone fire at the convoy, which had been struck by a van packed with explosives moments before.

In May, Army Col. John Nicholson created an uproar when he said he was "deeply ashamed" that U.S. Marines had killed Afghan civilians during an incident two months earlier. Marine commanders said Nicholson was wrong to denounce the Marines while investigations were still underway. On Wednesday, Nicholson again criticized the Marines, this time during a Marine Corps court of inquiry investigating the March 4 incident.