Charges planned in Iraqi’s death

SAN DIEGO – Military prosecutors plan to file murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman in the shooting death of an Iraqi man in April, a defense lawyer said Thursday.

The eight men are being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego, said Jeremiah Sullivan III, who represents one of the men.

The Iraqi’s death was unrelated to the shootings of as many as two dozen civilians in the western Iraqi city of Haditha in November.

The men being held at Camp Pendleton served in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, and are members of the battalion’s Kilo Company. The highest-ranking among them is a staff sergeant.

The Iraqi man was killed west of Baghdad on April 26, but few additional details have been released about his death.