BAGHDAD, Iraq — A former American soldier who is accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi and killing her and three members of her family told fellow soldiers that "all Iraqis are bad people" after his unit began taking casualties, according to testimony in an American military hearing on Sunday.
The former soldier, Steven D. Green, a private who was discharged in May after a psychiatric evaluation, also sought help for combat stress while deployed in Iraq, according to his former battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk.
Kunk was one of four witnesses who testified on Sunday. The hearing, which is expected to continue for several days, is the latest chapter in the prosecution of the case involving Green and five active-duty soldiers, all of whom are accused of involvement in the rape and killings on March 12 in the town of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
The case, one of several recent ones in which American soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, has embarrassed the American military, infuriated Iraqis and strained relations between American authorities in Baghdad and their Iraqi counterparts.
The hearing in Baghdad, conducted under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is roughly equivalent to a grand jury proceeding and will determine whether there is enough evidence to convene a court-martial to try the five active-duty soldiers.
Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, Pfc. Bryan L. Howard and Sgt. Paul E. Cortez have been accused of rape, murder and arson — military prosecutors say they set the girl's body on fire to conceal evidence.
The fifth soldier in the hearing, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, is accused of dereliction of duty for not reporting the crimes, but he is not thought to have been at the house where the crimes are said to have taken place.
In his testimony, Kunk said the soldiers' company had a particularly dangerous assignment to patrol a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency south of Baghdad. The job took a high toll, with eight of the company's soldiers killed from September through June.
Green and two of the accused soldiers, Spielman and Cortez, were "wallowing in self-pity" early in the year amid the violence and the death of fellow soldiers, Kunk said. They were among several soldiers who sought help for combat stress, he said.