US Marine blamed for ‘friendly fire’ incident

THE worst US “friendly fire” incident of the Iraq war has been blamed on a Marine captain who called fighter jets to strike suspected Iraqi positions last March, unaware that dozens of Marines were fighting in the area, defence officials said yesterday.

Ten Marines were killed and three wounded in the incident near the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya and an investigation report released yesterday, said the dead were so shot up by Iraqis and A-10 Air Force jets that it was almost impossible to determine exactly how they died.

But the year-long probe by an 11-member US military team concluded that actions by the unidentified Marine captain, a ground-based air controller, directly resulted in the confused incident on March 23, 2003.

It recommended that the officer receive some type of administrative discipline, but stipulated that “he didn't act with any negligence or reckless disregard”, one of the defence officials said.

“It was a very ugly scene on the ground - just a terrible thing in the heat of battle,” said another defence official.

Marine Corps officials declined to comment except to say that no action had been taken against the controller because the report had not yet been released.

Investigators found that the captain was in the city of Nassiriya at the time, could not see the action in a barren area near a canal and should have consulted his battalion commander, who would have known that US troops were in the strike area. But the report said he had been cleared by his immediate commander to call in air power.

Eighteen Marines were killed and 17 wounded in the area as Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion 2nd Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, sought to seize bridges and a canal near Nassiriya.

But the investigation concluded that apparently only 13 Marines were involved in the friendly fire strikes.

The investigation, headed by Brig Gen William Hodgkins, found that two unnamed Air Force pilots from the 103rd Fighter Squadron of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard did not act with negligence and should not be held liable.

The incident occurred on one of the most tragic days of the Iraq war for US-led forces.