January 17, 2000
Web posted at: 2:43 AM EST (0743 GMT)

VITINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier serving with the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo has been charged with sexually assaulting and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl, according to U.S. military authorities.

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Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi is accused of murder and indecent act with a child, according to Col. Ellis Golsen, a spokesman for NATO's Kosovo peacekeeping force, KFOR.

Ronghi, 35, is a weapons squad leader assigned to A company, 3rd Battalion, 540th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Golsen said.

The army will appoint an investigator to conduct a pretrial investigation, in a role similar to that of a grand jury.

Ronghi is being held in detention, pending transfer to the U.S. Army's confinement facility in Mannheim, Germany.