Iraqi witnesses began testifying yesterday to a US military court in Baghdad to decide whether to court-martial four US soldiers for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family in March. The Mahmudiya case, the fifth involving serious crimes being investigated by the US military in Iraq, has outraged Iraqis and led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops? immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

The court began by taking testimony from Iraqi witnesses, a part of the process which is supposed to be held behind closed doors, and the media were asked to leave. In the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, witnesses delivered testimony from behind a curtain to preserve their anonymity.

Death penalty

Military prosecutors are expected to lay out their case against Private First Class Jesse Spielman, Specialist James Barker, Sergeant Paul Cortez and Private First Class Bryan Howard, who face charges of rape and murder among others.

If court-martialled and found guilty they could face the death penalty. Former private Steven Green, 21, faces the same charges in a US federal court in Kentucky, home of his former 502nd Infantry Regiment. Green, who has pleaded not guilty, was discharged from the army for a ?personality disorder?.

A fifth soldier, Sergeant Anthony Yribe, is charged with dereliction of duty and making a false statement and will also appear at the hearing at Camp Victory next to Baghdad airport.

The hearing is expected to last up to four days.

According to prosecutors, Green shot dead 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi?s father, mother and six-year-old sister in Mahmudiya, near Baghdad.

Green then raped the teenager and killed her, and tried to burn the bodies and house to conceal evidence of the crime.

Prosecutors say a second soldier also raped Abeer. The New York Times reported on Saturday that it now appeared at least three soldiers raped her, according to a legal memo filed by a military magistrate.

Maliki has voiced frustration with a mounting number of cases against Americans, and the Mahmudiya case is particularly sensitive as rape is a taboo subject in Iraq.

The rape and murder case is the fifth in a series of high-profile investigations into killings of Iraqis by US soldiers. The military is probing whether Marines unlawfully killed 24 people at Haditha last November.