Fragging attacks rare in Iraq, Afghanistan [View All]

Fragging attacks rare in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 5:41:42 EDT

RALEIGH, N.C. — American troops killed their own commanders so often during the Vietnam War that the crime earned its own name — “fragging.”

But since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has charged only one soldier with killing his commanding officer, a dramatic turnabout that most experts attribute to the all-volunteer military.

And some argue the case of Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez shouldn’t be considered fragging, since his motive was unclear.

Fragging — a term derived from the hard-to-trace weapon of choice in such attacks, the fragmentation grenade — has varying definitions, from the killing of any superior to the murder of a soldier’s direct commander to avoid combat.

Martinez, 40, of Troy, N.Y., and a member of the state’s Army National Guard, is scheduled to appear Thursday in a courtroom at Fort Bragg, where the Army’s version of a grand jury is hearing evidence in his murder case.

He faces a possible death sentence if convicted of setting off several grenades and a mine in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces near Tikrit, Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_fragging_071017/