US soldier accused of blowing up his superior officers

WASHINGTON - A US Army National Guard soldier will be tried on murder charges with the death penalty possible in a case in which he is accused of blowing up two superior officers in Iraq last year, the Army said today.

Army Lt. Gen. John Vines decided that Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez will face court-martial on two counts of premeditated murder in the June 2005 deaths of company commander Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen near Tikrit, Iraq, officials at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said in a statement.

Martinez also will be tried on three counts relating to wrongful possession of a privately owned firearm, unexploded ordnance and alcohol, and one count relating to giving printers and copiers to an Iraqi national, according to the statement.

Martinez faces arraignment on November 3.

Martinez, Esposito and Allen served in the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry Division, a reserve unit drawn from the New York Army National Guard.

It is believed to be the first case of a US soldier charged with murdering superior officers in Iraq. Another soldier, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, was convicted of murdering two officers by rolling grenades into their tents in Kuwait before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Vines, formerly the No. 2 US commander in Iraq, referred the charges against Martinez to trial after hearings to review the allegations.

Martinez is accused of detonating a mine and grenades that killed the two officers. Testimony indicated Esposito had relieved Martinez of his duties as a supply sergeant and that relations between them were sour.

The incident took place in one of deposed President Saddam Hussein's former palaces at Tikrit.

- REUTERS