A former US soldier has been charged over the rape and death of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murders of three of her relatives.

FOUR soldiers from the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division will face a court-martial for the alleged rape of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her family, and two will face the death penalty, the military ordered yesterday.

Four American soldiers who face charges in connection with the rape and killing of 14-year-old girl and the murder of her family should face a court martial, a US Army investigator has recommended.

AN IRAQI army medic told a US military hearing yesterday he was sick for weeks after finding the naked and burned body of a 14-year-old girl allegedly raped and murdered by American soldiers south of Baghdad.

Defence attorneys requested a gag order today that applies even to US President George Bush and other high-ranking federal officials in the case of a former Army private accused over the rape and killing of a young Iraqi.

US federal prosecutors yesterday charged a veteran of the Iraq war with murder and rape following an investigation into the killing of an Iraqi woman and members of her family.