Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over 15 Iraqi Deaths
Bump and Update: This is big news today. See Time Magazine :
Because the incident is officially under investigation, members of the Marine unit that was in Haditha on Nov. 19 are not allowed to speak with reporters. But the military's own reconstruction of events and the accounts of town residents interviewed by Time--including six whose family members were killed that day--paint a picture of a devastatingly violent response by a group of U.S. troops who had lost one of their own to a deadly insurgent attack and believed they were under fire. Time obtained a videotape that purports to show the aftermath of the Marines' assault and provides graphic documentation of its human toll. What happened in Haditha is a reminder of the horrors faced by civilians caught in the middle of war--and what war can do to the people who fight it.
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Original Post 3/16/06
On November 19, 2005, one marine and 15 Iraqis were killed after an explosive device detonated in Haditha, about 140 miles north of Baghdad. Today, defense officials said the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service which has jurisdiction over Marine malfeasance has launched an investigation into the deaths.
The statement said the powerful roadside bomb detonated as a U.S. military convoy was passing through the town. After the detonation, gunmen opened fire on the convoy, and Americans and Iraqi government forces returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another, according to the military statement in 2005. A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha at the time said bodies were left lying in the street for hours after the attack.
This Islamonline article puts a very different slant on the incident, which if even remotely true, may explain the need for an investigation.
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