BAGHDAD, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. military prosecutors in Iraq have said the leaders of a unit accused of illegally killing three Iraqi detainees encouraged the unit to keep "kill counts."
The prosecutors said at a hearing Wednesday that Army Col. Michael Steele, commander of the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade, may have given an illegal order to "kill all military aged males," The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Pfc. Bradley Mason and other witnesses testified that the unit fostered an environment of violence and anti-Arab racism that included the keeping of kill counts, the Times said.
Mason, testifying under condition of immunity, said the unit was ordered by Steele and other officers to "engage and kill all military age men" during "Operation Iron Triangle" on an island in Tharthar Lake near Samara.
"We were told to kill all the males on the island," he testified. "We don't fire warning shots."
Soldiers from the unit have been accused of killing three men taken prisoner during the operation May 9. Mason claims he objected to the killings and stayed in a house while the shootings took place.
