Commanders knew of Haditha killings: NYT: US troops cleared over Ishaqi incident
NEW YORK, June 3: US marine commanders in Iraq learned within two days of the killings in Haditha last November that Iraqi civilians had died from gunfire, not a roadside bomb as initially reported, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing an unnamed senior marine officer, the newspaper said the officers involved, however, saw no reason to investigate further.
The commanders have told investigators they had not viewed as unusual the discrepancies that emerged almost immediately in accounts about how the two dozen Iraqis died, and that they had no information at the time suggesting that any civilians had been killed deliberately, the report said.
But the handling of the matter by the senior marine commanders in Haditha, and whether officers and enlisted personnel tried to cover up what happened or missed signs suggesting that the civilian killings were not accidental, has become a major element of the investigation by an Army general into the entire episode, the paper pointed out.
Officials have said that the investigation, while not yet complete, is likely to conclude that a small group of marines carried out the unprovoked killings of two dozen civilians in the hours after a makeshift bomb killed a marine, The Times said.
A senior marine general familiar with the investigation, which is being led by Major General Eldon Bargewell of the Army, said in an interview that it had not yet established how high up the chain of command culpability for the killings extended, The Times said.
But he said there were strong suspicions that some officers knew that the marine squad’s version of events had enough holes and discrepancies that it should have been looked into more deeply, the report pointed out.
“It’s impossible to believe they didn’t know,” The Times quoted the general as saying of mid-level and senior officers. “You’d have to know this thing stunk.”
NOT GUILTY: A US military probe on Saturday cleared troops of wrongdoing in one of the three cases of alleged killings of civilians in Iraq, which have raised worldwide concern over US conduct in the country.
The military said that its investigation into a deadly raid on March 15 in the town of Ishaqi, south of Samarra, had shown no evidence of misconduct by US troops.
“The investigation revealed the ground force commander, while capturing and killing terrorists, operated in accordance with the rules of engagement governing our combat forces in Iraq.”
The investigating officer “ascertained that the ground force commander properly followed the rules of engagement as he necessarily escalated the use of force until the threat was eliminated.”
US officials said that four people died in the raid after US forces were tipped off that a supporter of Al-Qaeda was visiting a house in Ishaqi.
The BBC this week showed footage of 11 bodies, including women and children, part of a video which it said it received from a Sunni group opposed to US forces in Iraq, evidence it said appeared to contradict the US version of events.
A report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.
“Allegations that the troops executed a family living in this safe house, and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false,” the US military said.
Another inquiry regarding US marines and a civilian death in Hamadiya, south of Baghdad, on April 26, combined with shooting deaths of a pregnant woman and her mother near a US checkpoint this week have sparked anger among Iraqis and led US officials to pledge improved ethics training for soldiers.—AFP/Reuters
