Ex-US soldier gets life in jail for Iraqi slayings

PADUCAH, Kentucky: An ex-soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi teen and murdering her family has been sentenced to life in prison in a case that drew attention to the emotional and psychological strains on soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Steven Dale Green, 24, was spared the death penalty on Thursday after jurors couldn't agree on a punishment for the brutal crime.

In March 2006, after an afternoon of card playing, sex talk and drinking Iraqi whiskey, Pfc. Green and three other soldiers went to the home of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi near Mahmoudiya, about 32 km south of Baghdad. Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then became the third soldier to rape the girl before shooting her in the face. Her body was set on fire.