Iraqi massacre investigation

AMERICA’S top-ranking military commander said yesterday “it would be premature for me to judge” the outcome of a Pentagon investigation into the killing of as many as a dozen Iraqi civilians by marines.

Marine General Peter Pace said he believes its critically important to make the point that if certain service members are responsible for an atrocity there, they “have not performed their duty the way that 99.9% of their fellow marines have.”

Gen Pace’s interview came a day after Congressman John Murtha said the incident could undermine US efforts more than the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

He also claimed that the shootings last November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, were covered up.