US Marines may have destroyed evidence

US MARINES being investigated over the killings of two dozen Iraqis last autumn in Haditha, most if not all of them civilians, appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, the New York Times newspaper reported yesterday.

Pages from an official company logbook of the unit involved in the deaths were missing, and an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone was not given to investigators until a top commander asked for it, two US Defence Department officials told the newspaper.

The Pentagon officials said a report about the Haditha killings does not directly accuse marines of attempting a cover-up, the newspaper added. The report, based on an investigation by Army Maj Gen Eldon A Bargewell, has not been made public.

The Pentagon officials claimed the report faulted officers in the 2nd Marine Division for not aggressively investigating the Haditha killings and concluded that the commanders created a climate that minimised the importance of Iraqi lives.

No charges have been brought in the Haditha killings. They followed a roadside bombing on November 19 that killed a marine lance corporal.

Initially, the Marine Corps reported that 15 Iraqis had died in the bombing or were killed in crossfire. Survivors of the encounter and human rights groups, however, claimed that 24 Iraqi civilians had been deliberately shot to death by marines.

The Haditha incident is among recent cases of alleged killings of Iraqi civilians. Five soldiers and a former soldier have been charged in the alleged March 12 rape-slaying of an Iraqi teenager and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.

Seven marines and one US Navy man have been charged with premeditated murder in connection with the killing of an Iraqi man in Hamdania on April 26.

Meanwhile, private vehicles have been banned in areas of Baghdad in a bid to stop sectarian attacks during tomorrow’s Shi’ite festival.