US charges Marine Corps officer in Iraq assaults

WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) The US military has charged a Marine Corps officer with assaulting three Iraqi civilians in a town west of Baghdad in April, the Marines said today.

The officer, 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan, also was charged with three counts of assault and one count of making a false official statement relating to the incident on April 10, 2006, near Hamdania.

There have been a number of cases involving misconduct by US troops in Iraq, although U.S. military leaders maintain the vast majority of American troops have conducted themselves honorably.

Very few of those charged in these cases have been officers.

The Marines said the incident was separate from one in the same town that took place on April 26 in which seven Marines and a Navy medic were charged in June with premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi civilian.

REUTERS PDS PM0340