U.S. Military Admits Iraq Massacre -- Months After Press Reported It

By: E&P Staff Months after the killings were uncovered by the press, the U.S. military finally appears ready to admit that a massacre took place in an Iraqi village last November 19 and then was covered up by soldiers or officers.

"A military investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November is expected to find that a small number of marines in western Iraq carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians," Congressional, military and Pentagon officials confirm, The New York Times reports Friday. "Two lawyers involved in discussions about individual marines' defenses said they thought the investigation could result in charges of murder, a capital offense.

"That possibility and the emerging details of the killings have raised fears that the incident could be the gravest case involving misconduct by American ground forces in Iraq."

Time magazine first brought the murders to lights in the U.S. in March, after months of charges in the Arab press. Knight Ridder and the Associated Press followed with stories. The main evidence was a video shot by a local journalism student, plus testimony of villagers to human rights workers. It is not known why four months passed after the incident before the U.S. media covered the story, and six months until the military confirmed the episode, sparking more anger against Americans in Iraq.

"When these investigations come out, there's going to be a firestorm," retired Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms, formerly a top lawyer for the Marine Corps, told The Washignton Post for a Friday story. "It will be worse than Abu Ghraib -- nobody was killed at Abu Ghraib."

An Army lawyer who has heard some accounts of the investigation told thge Post, "It's a lot more serious than people thought at the beginning. It's really bad timing," coming as the repercussions of the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse scandal are waning.

The military had first said that the victims died from a homemade bomb, and later, in a crossfire.

This is how the Times reported the incident last November 20: "The Marine Corps said Sunday that 15 Iraqi civilians and a marine were killed Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad....The bombing on Saturday in Haditha, on the Euphrates in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar, was aimed at a convoy of American marines and Iraqi Army soldiers, said Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, a Marine spokesman. After the explosion, gunmen opened fire on the convoy. At least eight insurgents were killed in the firefight, the captain said."

Now, the Times reports, evidence "indicates that the civilians were killed during a sustained sweep by a small group of marines that lasted three to five hours and included shootings of five men standing near a taxi at a checkpoint, and killings inside at least two homes that included women and children, officials said.

"That evidence, described by Congressional, Pentagon and military officials briefed on the inquiry, suggested to one Congressional official that the killings were 'methodical in nature.'"

Three Marine officers ? the battalion commander and two company commanders in Haditha at the time ? have been relieved of duty, although officials have declined to link that action to the probe, the Times noted.

Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), a retired Marine colonel, told the Times that the allegations indicated that "this was not an accident. This was direct fire by marines at civilians." He added, "This was not an immediate response to an attack. This would be an atrocity."