A US soldier charged with murdering Afghan civilians is to face a court martial, the US Army has said.
Cpl Jeremy Morlock is one of five soldiers accused of the premeditated murder of three Afghan civilians earlier this year.
All five deny the charges. Another seven soldiers from the same unit have been charged with conspiracy to cover up the alleged murders.
The army said that Cpl Morlock faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
The charge of premeditated murder carries the possibility of the death sentence but the army had decided not to press for this sentence, spokeswoman Major Kathleen Turner said.
The murders are alleged to have taken place between January and May this year when Cpl Morlock's unit was deployed in Kandahar province, in southern Afghanistan.
The five accused of murder allegedly threw grenades and opened fire on civilians in unprovoked assaults while the other seven are accused of dismembering the victims and collecting body parts.
The soldiers are all from the army's 5th Stryker brigade, which deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and saw heavy fighting around Kandahar.
BBC News
