A military jury acquitted a US Marine intelligence officer of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis, including women and children.

A US Marine will be court-martialed on reduced charges in the killings of 24 Iraqi men, women and children in the town of Haditha in 2005, the Marine Corps announced today.

A US Marine at the centre of the biggest prosecution of US troops in the Iraq war should be tried for the lesser offence of negligent homicide instead of murder, an investigating officer said.

A US Marine Corps squad leader has been charged with murdering 12 people and ordering other Marines under his command to kill six people during an incident that left 24 civilians dead in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year.