A US military judge allowed a marine sergeant convicted of murder in one of the biggest war crimes cases to emerge from the Iraq war to walk free today, nearly two months after a military appeals court ruled he had an unfair trial.

A US Navy medic has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the killing of an Iraqi civilian.

Iraqi witnesses today recounted how seven US Marines and a Navy corpsman kidnapped an Iraqi man from his home and shot him dead.