Two U.S. Marines and a Navy corpsman are being investigated over the death of a defense contractor during a New Year’s Eve fight in northern Iraq.
The contractor, who worked for Lockheed Martin, was transported from Erbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, to Landstuhl, Germany, and was pronounced dead on Jan. 4, Pentagon officials told the New York Times. The three service members were assigned to a Marine Special Operations unit advising Kurdish and Iraqi forces in northern Iraq.
Lockheed Martin said it “was saddened to learn of the loss of one of our employees, who was fatally injured while supporting Special Operations Forces within the Operation Inherent Resolve area of operations in a noncombat-related incident.”
The investigation is the latest of several into deadly misconduct among elite U.S. forces. Two Navy SEALs and two Marines were charged in November with murdering Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, who was found strangled in Mali in 2017. The SEALs and Marines in that case also were charged with involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, hazing, and burglary. If convicted, they could face life imprisonment or potentially the death penalty.
More recently, a former decorated Special Forces soldier was charged by the Army in December with premeditated murder. That followed an investigation of Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn after he allegedly told the CIA — while applying for a job at the agency — that he had killed a suspected Taliban bombmaker in 2010. The Army Criminal Investigation Command investigated, ending with Golsteyn receiving an official reprimand and having his Silver Star revoked.
The case was later reopened after Golsteyn appeared on Fox News in 2016 and claimed he killed the man due to a concern that he would target Afghans who were assisting U.S. troops. President Trump tweeted last month that he would review the case.
Approximately 5,200 U.S. troops remain in Iraq and are primarily responsible for aiding the Iraqi military in combating the Islamic State. Trump has announced the withdrawal all 2,000 American troops from Syria and plans to reduce by half the 14,000 forces in Afghanistan. He has announced no plans to bring down the number of troops in Iraq.
