US soldier jailed for 24 years for killing three Afghan civilians for sport

Jeremy N. Morlock, a soldier of US Army's 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, has been jailed for 24 years for killing Afghan civilians for sport. He also agreed to testify against other defendants in the case.4

Morlock, one of five soldiers from an Army Stryker brigade, is accused of staging combat situations to kill three civilians in Afghanistan last year.

He told the military judge presiding over the case, Lt. Col. Kwasi L. Hawks, that the deaths were neither justified nor accidental. "The plan was to kill people, sir," said Morlock at the start of a court-martial proceeding.

The sentence, plea and agreement to testify followed a deal Morlock and his lawyers negotiated with prosecutors in January, The New York Times reports.

The typical sentence for the charges to which he pleaded guilty - including three counts of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and assault - is life in prison, with or without the possibility of parole.

His lawyers say he could be eligible for parole within about seven years.

Morlock, 22, of Wasilla, Alaska, is the first of the five to face a court-martial.

Some soldiers in the case are accused of posing with dead Afghans in photographs and then sharing the pictures with others. (ANI)