(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-06 09:32

A civic group member displays a cardboard during a protest against a US Marine's alleged rape of a young girl in Okinawa near the US Embassy in Tokyo in February 2008. [Agencies]

TOKYO -- The US military says it will court-martial four US Marines in Japan for the alleged rape of a Japanese woman.

Master Gunnery Sgt. John Cordero of the US Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni in southern Japan said Thursday that the courts-martial are to be held beginning next month.

The four Marines, accused of an attack on a 19-year-old woman in October, were charged by the military in December.