A citizenship identification card issued by the Iraqi government in 1993 shows Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, nicknamed al-Janabi, as translated from the identity card in this handout photo from her relatives in Baghdad July 9, 2006. Five US soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case that has outraged Iraqis, as documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday showed the rape victim was a minor aged just 14, and not over 20 as US officials say. [Reuters]

Five US soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case that has outraged Iraqis, as documents showed on Sunday the rape victim was aged 14, and not over 20 as US officials have said.

Days after former private Steven Green was charged as a civilian in a US court with rape and four murders, four serving soldiers were charged with the same offences, the US military said in statement. It did not name the troops.

Another soldier, apparently a sixth member of Green's former unit in the 502nd Infantry Regiment, was charged on Saturday with dereliction of duty for not reporting the crime in March.

All five were charged with conspiring with Green, accused by US prosecutors of going with three others to a house near the checkpoint they were manning outside Mahmudiya, near Baghdad, and of killing a couple and their two daughters. The five could face the death penalty.

Court documents described the raped daughter as an "adult female" and estimated her age as 25. US military officials in Iraq say their documents have her as 20. Local officials and relatives had said she was 15 or 16.

Her identity card and a copy of her death certificate obtained by Reuters, however, show she was 14.

Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was born on August 19, 1991 in Baghdad, according to the identity card, provided to Reuters by a relative. Issued in 1993, it features a photograph of her at 18 months, wide-eyed and with a lick of dark hair over her brow.

A copy of her death certificate, dated March 13, gives the same birth date. She was found at home by a relative on March 12 and had died from "gunshot wounds to the head, with burns", said the document, signed by doctor Wael Habib and a registrar.

No independent verification of the documents was immediately available.

The age of consent with parental approval in Iraq is 15, though it is not uncommon for girls to marry younger in rural areas.

Abeer's sister Hadeel was aged six when she died of "several gunshot wounds".

Scorch Marks and Bloodstains

In this photo provided by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, Steven D. Green is shown in A booking mug shot at the Mecklenburg County jail in Charlotte, North Carolina, July 3, 2006. [AP]

The killers tried to burn the bodies and house to cover their tracks, relatives and local officials have said. Scorch marks and bloodstains can still be seen in the one-storey home.

Some relatives have said they would not object to exhuming the dead for forensic tests, a religiously sensitive process.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, balancing a dependence on US firepower with a need to show Iraqis he is in charge, has voiced frustration with a mounting number of cases against Americans and wants a review of their immunity from Iraqi law.

Since revelations in March of a US probe into whether Marines killed 24 people at Haditha, Mahmudiya is the fifth case of serious crime being investigated by the US military. In all, 16 soldiers have been charged with murder in the past month or so -- as many as in the previous three years of fighting.

Officers say generals are cracking down to try to curb harm to civilians that have turned Iraqis against U.S. troops. One said a report submitted on Friday to the top general in Iraq should see action against Marine commanders who failed to act on evidence troops may have killed civilians at Haditha on November 19.

Green, 21, has since been discharged from the army due to a "personality disorder". The case came to light during stress counselling for a soldier in Green's unit last month.

A soldier cited in US court documents as the first witness told investigators Green and three others drank alcohol and discussed rape. They then told the soldier to keep watch on the radio as they set off for the house, some in civilian clothes.

Two soldiers who said they went to the house accused Green of killing the parents and child before he and the other soldier in the home raped Abeer. Green then shot her too, they said.

A sixth unidentified soldier is mentioned in court papers as discussing the case later with the first witness at their base.

The death certificate makes no mention of rape, a taboo subject in Iraq.

Some relatives have said they would not object to exhuming the dead for forensic tests, a religiously sensitive process.

Abeer's 34-year-old father Qasim Hamza Rasheed al-Janabi, whose five-year-old ID card photograph shows a slim, dark man with a moustache, was a labourer who died of a "smashing of the head due to gunshot wounds", his death certificate said.

His wife, Fakhriya Taha Muheisin al-Janabi, was 43 when she died of "several wounds". All four certificates gave the time of death as 2 p.m. on March 12, possibly referring to when the bodies were found by Mehdi Obeid Salih, Fakhriya's cousin.

Two sons, aged 13 and 10, survived because they were absent from the house at the time.

"She was a beautiful girl," one relative said, asking not to be named. "She complained to her mother about trouble from American soldiers. She gave them no encouragement as we are a conservative and respectable family."