TACOMA — The Army has dropped murder charges against a soldier in the shooting of two unarmed Iraqi boys during a blown reconnaissance mission in 2007, but he still faces prosecution on allegations that he obstructed the investigation and threatened a journalist’s wife.
The News Tribune of Tacoma reported Tuesday that the charges were dropped after a commander at Joint Base Lewis-McChord reviewed the results of a pretrial hearing held last spring for Sgt. 1st Class Michael Barbera.
Witnesses said the brothers were shot as they herded cattle in Diyala Province.
The shooting wasn’t initially reported up the chain of command, but the Army looked into it two years later and declined to prosecute. Some of Barbera’s fellow soldiers remained troubled by that and spoke with a Pittsburgh paper, The Tribune-Review, which published an investigation in 2012.
Barbera was charged last fall. His lawyer called the murder allegations baseless.
