Capital Charges Filed In Rape-Slaying Case

Television image shows house in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, where an Iraqi girl and her family were killed. Five U.S. soldiers and one former soldier face charges. (Associated Press)

Asked if the family had anything it wanted known about Spielman, she said, "Just that we're proud of him," her voice breaking, before hanging up the phone.

Yribe, the sergeant charged with allegedly failing to report the killings, spoke last month at a memorial for Army Spec. David J. Babineau, according to an entry posted by Yribe's mother at a Web site for slain American service members.

Babineau was killed in an attack near Mahmudiyah last month. Two other U.S. soldiers with him were abducted. Their mutilated bodies were found days later, with bombs planted around them, officials said.

"Tony is devastated as he knows that you are, and wants you to know that you will never be alone, and that he cares a great deal about you," Yribe's mother, Roberta Dachtler, wrote then, in a message posted for Babineau's family.

Reached Thursday by telephone in her native Idaho, Dachtler said: "I personally am not making statements at this point for my own son's protection. I do invite you to check back again."

U.S. soldiers initially said insurgents killed the family, and relatives of the victims said little publicly about the case because of the shame associated with rape in conservative Muslim culture. Local authorities have said they do not believe last month's killings of the three soldiers came in retaliation for the March attack on Abeer and her family.

All of the soldiers involved were from the 502nd Infantry Regiment, which is attached to the 4th Infantry Division.

A Time magazine report in March into allegations that Marines wrongly shot dead 24 civilians in the western city of Haditha signaled the start of some of the first extensive and public U.S. military investigations into cases of alleged U.S. killings of Iraqi civilians. Eleven U.S. troops since have been charged in two unrelated killings of a total of four Iraqi men.

Researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.