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Navy SEALs and Marines charged with murder over death of Green Beret in Mali

File photo of Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar

Two US Navy SEAL officers and two Marines have been charged in connection with the 2017 death of a Green Beret comrade in the African nation of Mali, where they were all deployed.

The SEALs charged in the case are both chief petty officers assigned to Naval Special Warfare Development Group, commonly referred to as SEAL Team 6. The US Navy has not released their names and redacted them from public charge sheets, The Navy Times reported.

Citing charge sheets in the case, the report said the special operators are accused of breaking into Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar’s bedroom in Bamako, Mali, while he was sleeping, and restraining him with duct tape and strangling him by placing him in a chokehold.

In addition to felony murder, the officers have been charged with involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, hazing and burglary.

If convicted, all four soldiers could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

In a separate case, another Navy SEAL chief officer was accused of war crimes during the 2017 battle of Iraqi forces against terrorists holed up in the northern city of Mosul.

The American soldier, identified as Edward “Eddie” Gallagher, murdered an injured teen militant by stabbing him in the neck and body with his hunting knife and then posed for a picture with the corpse.

According to the newly unearthed charge sheet dated October 2, Gallagher faces charges of premeditated murder for stabbing the wounded ISIL militant "in the neck and body with a knife" on May 3, 2017.

The 19-year veteran chief special warfare operator is further charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon for shooting two noncombatants, one male, one female, with his firearm in June and July of that year during deployment in the Mosul region with Naval Special Warfare Group One.

Gallagher is accused of attempting to impede the probe into his alleged wrongdoing by discouraging members of his unit from talking to investigators.

Gallagher’s civilian lawyer announced on Thursday that his client would have to fight to clear his name at court-martial, expressing confidence that the SEAL would ultimately be vindicated at trial.


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