US soldier gets 27 months for Iraq atrocity

WASHINGTON: A US soldier has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for being an accessory to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Iraq and the killing of her family, the US military said.

Private First Class Bryan Howard, 19, was sentenced at Fort Campbell, Kentucky on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to the accessory charge as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice, the military said in a statement.

Murder and rape charges against Howard were dropped 'based on his limited role in the crimes,' the military said.

The court concluded that Howard had overheard his friends planning the crime and then lied to protect them, the Houston Chronicle reported.

"If I could go back, I would not have let it happen in the first place. I definitely would have told somebody," Howard reportedly said in a statement to the court.

Howard was one of five soldiers accused in the rape and murder of the Iraqi girl and the slaying of her parents and younger sister, one of a series of atrocities committed by US troops in Iraq.

Last month, another US soldier, Sergeant Paul Cortez, was sentenced to 100 years in prison for the March 2006 rape and murders in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.

An accomplice, Specialist James Barker, avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. He was sentenced to 90 years in prison in November.

The alleged ringleader, Steve Green, was earlier discharged from the army and will be tried in federal court.

The crime was the second incident involving soldiers from the famed 101st Airborne Division.