Ex-soldier on trial for rape and murder

AN ex-soldier charged with raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and slaying her family set the girl’s body ablaze after shooting her several times, prosecutors said during opening statements at his federal trial.

Steven Dale Green, 23, of Midland, Texas, faces more than a dozen charges, including sexual assault and four counts of murder, stemming from the 2006 attack in Iraq’s so-called “Triangle of Death”.

After he shot the girl in the face several times, Green used kerosene to set fire to her body, assistant US attorney Brian Skaret said.