Army Maj. Gen. Frank Helmick has been nominated for a third star and assignment as commander, Multi-National Security Transition Command —Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Helmick is currently serving as commanding general, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force (Airborne), Italy.

Stars and Stripes reported March 15 that Brig. Gen. William B. Garrett III will get a second star and take over command of the Southern European Task Force (Airborne), based in Vicenza.

Both moves require Senate approval.

Lawyer: Evidence shows war crimesSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The military lawyer for an alleged al-Qaida fighter at Guantanamo Bay said Thursday that accounts of the firefight in which he was captured indicate some U.S. soldiers — and not his client — should be charged for war crimes.

During the final moments of a July 2002 raid on an al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan, an American soldier killed one combatant who lay moaning with a rifle at his side, and nearly executed 15-year-old Omar Khadr after shooting him twice in the back, according to eyewitness accounts revealed at Khadr’s pretrial hearings.