SAN DIEGO (AP) - A judge in San Diego has dropped two charges against a Navy SEAL accused of stabbing a teenage Islamic State prisoner in Iraq and posing with the corpse.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Monday that the judge in the court martial of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher dropped a count related to the officer's battlefield re-enlistment ceremony next to the body. Also dropped was a charge related to Gallagher allegedly operating a drone over the corpse.
Gallagher attorney Colby Vokey calls those charges "character-smearing."
A Navy spokesman, Brian O'Rourke, says that won't affect the rest of the case.
Gallagher is still accused of stabbing the wounded fighter, firing on civilian crowds and shooting a girl and an elderly man during his 2017 deployment. He's pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder.
