BAGHDAD, July 19: The US military said on Thursday it had charged two soldiers with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi in yet another scandal to rock the American forces in Iraq since the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Sergeant 1st Class Trey Corrales and Specialist Christopher Shore were charged for the murder last month near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, the military said in a statement.

The charges were levied after reports of “alleged wrongdoing made by fellow soldiers to military authorities,” the military said.

No more details of the alleged murder were revealed.

The pair is assigned to a company based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii but currently deployed in northern Iraq.

The military said the commander of the unit Lie-utenant Colonel Michael Browder was replaced “due to lack of confidence in his ability to command effectively”.

Browder is not accused of committing any crime, the military said, but added that the two soldiers were under his command.

The latest murder charges come within a month after three other US soldiers were charged with the murder of three Iraqis.

Staff Sergeant Michael Hensley, Sergeant Evan Vela and Specialist Jorge Sandoval are accused of premeditated murder over the killing of three Iraqi nationals in three separate incidents.

They have also been charged with wrongfully placing weapons with the remains of the deceased Iraqis after complaints from fellow soldiers led to an investigation.

The killings allegedly took place between April and June 2007 near the town of Iskandiriyah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad.

The latest charges come a day after a US Marine was found guilty of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi civilian killed during a late-night raid in northern Iraq last year.

A nine-member panel ruled that Trent Thomas, 25, had been part of a plot to murder Hashim Ibrahim Awad, who was shot dead after being taken from his home in Hamdania on April 26, 2006.

A series of scandals have rocked the US military in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam's regime.

In 2004, pictures of the abuse of detainees at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad shocked the world.

Three marines also face murder charges over the killings of 24 Iraqis while four other soldiers stand accused of covering up the deaths, the most serious war crimes case involving US forces since the invasion.

Prosecutors allege marines went on a killing spree in Haditha, in the heart of the Sunni triangle, shooting unarmed men, women and children after a comrade was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol.

In another gruesome case, five soldiers are accused of being involved in raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her parents and younger sister in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, in March 2006.—AFP