A US military probe recommended Wednesday that a sergeant charged with murdering two colleagues in Iraq face a possible death sentence at a court martial for the first such crime since the 2003 invasion.

Investigating officer Colonel Patrick Reinert, in the non-binding recommendation, said he found"aggravating factors" that could permit possible capital punishment for Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez.

The No 2 US commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General John Vines, will make a final decision on the case.

"I recommend trial by a general court martial," Reinert said a day after ending the investigation at Camp Arifjan, a US military base 60 kilometres south of Kuwait City.

Reporters were allowed to watch the proceedings, held in Kuwait rather than Iraq due to security concerns, through closed-circuit television.

"There was no evidence that the accused was not mentally responsible at the time of the crimes," Reinert said. "There is reasonable grounds to believe he (Martinez) committed the offences alleged... there is reasonable cause to believe he had the motive and the opportunity to commit these offences."

Martinez was charged with the premeditated murder of company commander Captain Phillip Esposito and Lieutenant Louis Allen in a blast in Iraq in June. All three served in the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry Division, a reserve unit drawn from the New York Army National Guard.

The murder, which took place in one of ousted President Saddam Hussein's palaces in Tikrit, was the first of its kind among US troops in Iraq.

Source: China Daily