The US Army has suspended the commander of a major training camp for adultery and physical abuse allegations in yet another case of persisting sexual misconduct charges filed against senior American military officers.
Military authorities said on Tuesday that Brigadier General Bryan Roberts, who is a 29-year Army veteran, was suspended from his post at Ft. Jackson Army base in South Carolina, while the Pentagon probes allegations of “adultery and a physical altercation,” The Los Angeles Times reports on Wednesday.
Roberts, who is reportedly married with three children, previously led American Army units during the US-led invasion of Iraq as well as in city of New Orleans after a major flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Ft. Jackson is a huge military training facility near the city of Columbia and serves as the main base for conducting boot camps for nearly half of the Armyâ„¢s annual recruits – about 36,000 soldiers – including 60 percent of female recruits, according to the report.
The latest allegations against the senior commander deal another embarrassing blow to the newly installed US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is evidently struggling to show he takes sexual misconduct seriously.
This is while official statistics point to a staggering rise in sexual assault cases throughout the US armed forces.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon released figures estimating that 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in unreported incidents last year, a 35% increase from 2010.
The development comes as the head of the US Air Force sexual assault prevention branch was arrested by the local police earlier in May on charges of sexually assaulting a woman outside a restaurant near the Pentagon.
Just a few days later, the report adds, the Army relieved from duty its chief of the sexual harassment prevention unit for the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell base in Kentucky after his arrest in a domestic dispute. The Army further suspended a sergeant first class who coordinated a sexual assault prevention program at its Ft. Hood military base in Texas on allegations of running a prostitution ring and abusing other service members.
Another top Army commander, Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair is also due to face a military court-martial in June on charges of sexual misconduct, including allegations that he forcibly raped a female captain and then threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone.
Sinclair, who was a deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan at the time, faces life imprisonment if convicted of the charges.
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This article originally appeared on : Press TV