WASHINGTON — Two Marines and a Navy corpsman stationed in northern Iraq are being investigated in the death of an American civilian contractor last week, two Defense Department officials said on Monday.

The contractor was severely wounded in what officials described as a physical altercation on New Year’s Eve in Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The contractor, who worked for Lockheed Martin, was evacuated to Landstuhl, Germany, and pronounced dead on Jan. 4.

The two Defense Department officials confirmed the death on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the continuing investigation. A Lockheed spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Ed Buice, a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said in an email that “N.C.I.S. does not discuss the details of ongoing investigations.”

The two Marines and the sailor were assigned to a Marine Special Operations unit, a small contingent of troops deployed to Iraq to advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces. The episode highlights the continuing concerns about misconduct within the ranks of the American military’s elite forces.

Source: Read Full Article