US officials investigate 'military murders'

Military officials in the United States are investigating a series of murders allegedly involving US special forces soldiers who served in Afghanistan.

The BBC reports four soldiers based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina are accused of killing their wives.

The murders took place in the past two months, two of them in the last week.

Two of the men later shot themselves, and the two surviving men have since been charged with murder.

The base in North Carolina is the headquarters of America's elite Special Forces unit.

Three of the soldiers had recently returned from service in Afghanistan.

Commanders are looking into whether any of the men sought counselling after coming home.

The base's family liaison policy is also now under review.

But the BBC says a spokesman said that, however disturbing, any link between the killings and the war in Afghanistan was purely coincidental.

Two of the women were shot, one was strangled, and one was stabbed to death. All four killings took place off the base.