Soldier Charged in the Brutal Iraq Rape Case

And now reports say the girl was only 15.

One soldier was arrested after admitting his role in the alleged attack on the family, the official said. The official said the rape and killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," noting that the soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the rape victim was a 15-year-old girl and that her mother had worried her daughter had attracted the attention of U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint. The mother asked a neighbor if the girl could sleep at his house.

The neighbor, Omar Janabi, agreed but the girl and her family were attacked the next day -- March 11, according to the Post.

Janabi said he was one of the first people to arrive at the house after the attack and he found the girl dead in a corner, her hair and a pillow burned and her dress pushed up to her neck.

According to a Reuters report, few Iraqi media outlets have reported the rape because the subject is too taboo to touch.

Iraq's main organization of Sunni clerics said the rape and murder "reveals the real, ugly face of America." The Muslim Scholars Association said: "This act committed by the occupying soldiers, from raping the girl to mutilating her body and killing her family, should make all humanity feel ashamed."