October 21, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 8, 1428

LOS ANGELES, Oct 20: Two US marines are to face court martial in connection with the killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha two years ago, the military said on Friday.

The US Marine Corps said in a statement that Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Chessani would stand trial for failing to properly investigate the deaths while Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum faced trial on manslaughter charges.

The two soldiers are the first to be sent for court martial in connection with the case, the most serious allegations of war crimes made against US troops Iraq in the four-year conflict.

No date for the courts martial has been set.

Prosecutors alleged marines went on a killing spree in Haditha, west of Baghdad on Nov 19, 2005, shooting unarmed men, women and children in retaliation for a roadside bomb attack that tore a popular comrade in half.

Initial reports of the incident by the marines said 15 people had died in a roadside bombing. But an investigation published later by Time magazine contradicted the official version of events, prompting two deeper probes.

In December last year, the Marine Corps announced charges against eight soldiers. Four officers, including Chessani, were accused of failing to probe the deaths properly, while four soldiers were charged with murder.

Military prosecutors have faced enormous difficulty in making the charges against the soldiers stick, however, hampered by a lack of forensic evidence and witness statements made several months after the events in question.

Two of the marines facing murder charges saw the allegations dropped earlier this year, while two officers accused of failing to conduct an inquiry into the deaths were also cleared.—AFP