US launches probe into civilian 'massacre' by Marines

The US military has launched an investigation into claims that American forces shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three year-old-girl, shortly after a roadside bomb killed a US Marine in a western Iraqi town.

The story of the incident, told to the Associated Press news agency by residents, was largely forgotten until last week when the military said it was investigating potential misconduct by Marines after a rebel attack in the town of Haditha, 140 miles north-west of Baghdad on November 19 last year.

The allegations against the Marines were first brought forward by Time Magazine, which said it obtained a videotape two months ago taken by a Haditha journalism student inside the houses and local mortuary.

A news release accompanying Time’s account of events in its edition yesterday mirrored what was told independently to AP by residents who described what happened as “a massacre”.

Khaled Ahmed Rsayef, whose brother and six other members of his family were killed in the incident, said the roadside bomb exploded at about 7.15am in al-Subhani neighbourhood, heavily damaging a US Humvee.

At the time, a US military statement described it as an ambush on a joint US-Iraqi patrol that left 15 civilians, eight militants and a US Marine dead in the bombing and subsequent firefight. The statement said the 15 civilians were killed by the blast, a claim the residents denied.

They said the only shooting done after the bomb exploded was by US forces.

“American troops immediately cordoned the area and raided two nearby houses, shooting at everyone inside,” said Rsayef. “It was a massacre in every sense of the word.”

Rsayef and another resident, former city councillor Imad Jawad Hamza, said the first house to be stormed was that of Abdul-Hamid Hassan Ali, which was very close to the scene of the bomb attack.

Ali, 76, died instantly after being shot in the stomach and chest. His wife, Khamisa, 66, was shot in the back.

Ali’s son Jahid, 43, was hit in the head and chest. Son Walid, 37, was burned to death after a grenade was thrown in his room, and a third son, 28-year-old Rashid, died after he was shot in the head and chest.

Also among the dead were son Walid’s wife, Asma, 32, who was shot in the head, and his son Abdullah, four, who was shot in the chest, both Rsayef and Hamza said.

Walid’s eight-year-old daughter Iman, and his six-year-old son Abdul-Rahman, were wounded and taken by US troops to Baghdad for treatment. The only person who escaped unharmed was Walid’s five-month-old daughter, Asia.

Rsayef said those killed in the second house were his brother Younis, 43, who was shot in the stomach and chest, hos brother’s wife Aida, 40, who was shot in the neck and upper chest while still in bed, where she was recuperating from bladder surgery.

Their eight-year-old son Mohammed was shot in the right arm and bled to death, Rsayef said.

Also killed were the brother’s daughters Nour, 14, who was shot in the head; Seba, 10, who was hit in the chest; Zeinab, five, shot in the chest and stomach, and Aisha, 3, who was shot in the chest. A relative who was visiting, Hoda Yassin, was also killed, they said.

The troops then shot dead four brothers walking in the street, Rsayef and Hamza said, identifying them as the sons of Ayed Ahmed: Marwan, Qahtan, Jamal and Chaseb.

US troops also shot dead five men in a car near the scene, Hamza and Rsayef said. It was not clear if these last nine men were involved in the attack as the military statement said.

Dr Walid al-Hadithi, chief physician at Haditha General Hospital, said that about midnight two US Humvees arrived at the hospital, one carrying the bodies of the men and the other those of women and children.

“They told me the women and children were shot in their homes, and they added that the men were saboteurs,” al-Hadithi said. He said he was given a total of 24 bodies. “All had bullet wounds.”

Yesterday US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing said: “We take these allegations very seriously and I believe the fact that two additional investigations are ongoing concerning this incident clearly demonstrates that.”

Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the number-two US commander in Iraq, said about 12 Marines were under investigation for possible war crimes in connection with the incident.