Free Republic

Associated Press KUWAIT CITY – A military tribunal began hearings today for a U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq, with a witness testifying that the defendant told him he wanted to kill one of the victims. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, of Troy, N.Y., faces murder charges in the June 7 killings of Capt. Philip Esposito and Lt. Louis E. Allen in a bomb blast at Forward Operating Base Danger, near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, the hometown of the deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, some 80 miles north of Baghdad. It is believed...

A large measure of our success is the transfer of responsibility to Iraqi security forces. In recent months I have seen the contribution of our Iraqi army partners rise dramatically. Iraqi units now conduct over half of the counterinsurgency fight. They do this either independently or jointly with our soldiers. [. . .] The majority of the insurgency in North-Central Iraq remains those Iraqis with ties to the former regime, or Sunni Arabs who reject their new sovereign government. . . . we are seeing more of these Iraqis turning away from violence and participating in the political process. [....

A 37-year-old supply sergeant has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the June 7 deaths of his company commander and operations officer at a U.S. military camp near Tikrit, Iraq, officials said Friday. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 42nd Infantry Division, is being held at a detention facility in Kuwait, according to the U.S. command in Baghdad. The incident, which claimed the lives of Capt. Phillip T. Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, was originally described by the military as an indirect fire attack on Forward Operating Base Danger, headquarters of...

About 1,000 soldiers in the New York National Guard will begin preparing to go to Iraq after the Pentagon put them on notice Monday that they may be mobilized. The alert order was issued to the 42nd Infantry Division headquartered in Troy, N.Y. and three other major units around the country as part of a larger force, probably to total around 100,000 active duty and reserve troops expected to take over for the contingent just beginning a one-year tour. The Pentagon's alert order applies to approximately 1,000 soldiers in units around New York State with the 42nd Infantry Division, known...