A US soldier convicted of killing five of his colleagues in Iraq in May 2009 was sentenced to life behind bars on Thursday and dishonourably discharged.
Army Sergeant John Russell was convicted earlier this week over the murders at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war-related stress at Camp Liberty, the largest US base in Iraq.
Russell, who previously denied responsibility, admitted the killings last month in a plea deal to escape a death sentence, worked out by his lawyers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), in the northwestern US state of Washington.
On Thursday he was jailed for life, reduced to the rank of private and given a dishonourable discharge from the military, military spokeswoman Barbara Junius said.
At the time of the Camp Liberty killings, the incident represented the single deadliest toll on US forces in a month in Iraq, and came at a sensitive moment in the US military’s occupation of the country it invaded in 2003.
Russell was on his third tour of duty in Iraq, and his unit was preparing to leave the country.
