US soldier sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of five colleagues in Iraq Russell, who previously denied responsibility, admitted the killings last month in a plea deal to escape a death sentence, worked out by his lawyers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), in the northwestern US state of Washington. At the time of the Camp Liberty killings, the incident represented the single deadliest toll on US forces in a month in Iraq, and came at a sensitive moment in the US military's occupation of the country it invaded in 2003. Due to concerns over Russell's mental state, his commanding officer had ordered about a week before the shooting that his weapon be confiscated and that he get counselling. After pleading guilty last month, Russell gave an account of the killings for the first time. The victims were three soldiers receiving care at the clinic and two medical officers. "I just did it out of rage, sir," he told the military judge, Colonel David Conn, describing how he walked from room to room firing at mental health workers and patients. I was upset. I do not remember being angry, but I know that everyone who witnessed me outside the combat stress clinic said I looked angry," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying. Edited by Steve Wilson for telegraph.co.uk