BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier in Iraq is accused of fatally shooting two other American service members and injuring a third after an argument in Iraq's Anbar province last week, the military said.

A statement issued Tuesday by U.S. forces said Spec. Neftaly Platero, 32, was being held in Iraq while the military conducts an investigation into the killings in Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, said that the four men got into an argument Thursday on a U.S. base.

Platero, of the Houston area, apparently then pulled his weapon on the other men and "started shooting," Johnson said.

A Pentagon statement said that Spec. John Carrillo Jr., 20, of Stockton, Calif., and Pfc. Gebrah P. Noonan, 26, of Watertown, Conn., died from their injuries Friday. No information was released on the wounded soldier.

"We are saddened by this tragic incident," Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said in a statement.

The deaths of Carrillo and Noonan were first revealed by the military Friday. At that time, the Army said they died in a "non-combat" incident.