18/10/06; BBC; www.middleeastdaily.com/
The US military has been conducting a number of investigations into incidents of alleged unlawful killings by US forces in Iraq. There are two investigations into events that took place in the town of Haditha in Anbar province north-west of Baghdad – one into the events themselves and the other into whether there was a cover-up. The allegations are that on 19 November 2005 US marines shot dead 24 civilians, including seven women and three children.
The military’s original claim that the civilians – initially said to be 15 – died in a roadside blast was disproved by an earlier investigation. Investigators are looking at whether the civilians died in crossfire or were targeted deliberately in a potential war crime.
Haditha residents say the marines went on the rampage after one of their number was killed in a roadside blast and another two were injured. In March 2006, the US military began a criminal investigation; no criminal charges have been filed. In April, three officers in charge of troops in Haditha were also stripped of their command and reassigned. In May, the Iraqi government said it would investigate the allegations.
Seven US marines have been charged over the death of a disabled Iraqi man on 26 April 2006 in the central Iraqi town of Hamdaniya. An eighth serviceman, US Navy medic Petty Officer Melson J Bacos, has admitted kidnapping in a plea bargain and will testify about the death.
Three of the marines are to be tried for murder by a military tribunal. The death penalty will not be sought if convicted. It is alleged that the 52-year-old victim was taken from his house and shot, with a rifle and shovel left by his body to make it appear as if he were an insurgent planting a roadside bomb.
Local Iraqis are said to have told marine leaders about the alleged shooting, which prompted an inquiry. The accused were taken out of Iraq and are held at Camp Pendleton in California.
In June, a US inquiry cleared US forces of blame for the deaths of 11 civilians in Ishaqi, north-west of Baghdad, in March. Reports that troops “executed” a family during a raid on a house there and tried to cover it up were “absolutely false”, the US military said. A report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops who were trying to capture insurgents of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.
Four bodies including that of an insurgent were found after the raid while up to nine “collateral deaths” resulted from the US raid, according to the investigation. It added a precise death toll could not be determined because of collapsed walls and debris.
But leading figures in the Iraqi government are unhappy, and want a wider investigation. Four soldiers have been charged with murder following the shooting of three male Iraqi prisoners near Tikrit, Salahuddin province, in northern Iraq on 9 May.
They have also been charged over allegations they threatened to kill a fellow soldier if he spoke about the incident, the US military said. The detainees died during a US military operation near the Thar Thar Canal near Tikrit in northern Iraq on 9 May.
The probe was triggered by soldiers who raised suspicions about the deaths. A criminal investigation began on 17 May. A criminal investigation began on 24 June into the alleged killing by US troops of an Iraqi family of four in their home in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.
Four US soldiers on active duty and a former soldier, Steven Green, have been charged with murder, as well with the rape of one of the family members, a girl of 14 years. A fifth soldier serving in Iraq has been charged with dereliction of duty for not reporting the offences.