BAGHDAD — An American serviceman is being held in Iraq in connection with the fatal shootings of two soldiers and the wounding of another following an apparent argument, the US military said yesterday.
A statement by US forces said Specialist Neftaly Platero was in custody during the investigation into last week’s slayings in Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Colonel Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman, said a “verbal altercation’’ broke out among four soldiers last Thursday and the suspect “allegedly took his weapon and began shooting the other soldiers.’’
Platero is from the Houston area, Johnson said.
The Pentagon said Specialist John Carrillo Jr., 20, of Stockton, Calif., and Private Gebrah P. Noonan, 26, of Watertown, Conn. died the next day.
They were assigned to the Third Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Stewart, Ga.
The name of the wounded soldier was not released.
In an unrelated incident, the Pentagon said another US soldier died last Friday in an accident in Kuwait. A statement said Army Specialist Marc C. Whisenant, 23, of Holly Hill, Fla., died in a military vehicle roll-over. It offered no details, including whether the soldier was inside the vehicle.
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