Marines may face trial over Iraq massacre

In Vietnam it was My Lia, in Iraq it could well be known as Haditha.

It is claimed that in this town north west of Baghdad, that US marines have assassinated two dozen civilians, including eleven women and children.

In what is being viewed as the gravest allegation to date of war crimes in Iraq, a military investigation is expected to present findings in Baghdad next week that a small group of troops shot dead 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including five men in a taxi, and women and children at homes in the town last November 19.

Other marines then tried to cover up the killings, the investigation has found.

Two lawyers quoted yesterday by the New York Times said they thought the investigation could result in murder charges, making the events at Haditha the worst case of abuse in three years of war.

The Los Angeles Times said the report would conclude that a dozen marines acted improperly and could face charges including murder, negligent homicide, dereliction of duty, and falsifying reports.

Allegations of a massacre at Haditha, a largely Sunni town active in the insurgency, were first reported by Time magazine last March. But the full scale of what happened has been slow to emerge.

"This is not a grey area. It is not a combat situation confused by the fog of war. This was a massacre," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch. "If these allegations are borne out, and it looks like they will be, this will be the most serious war crime that has taken place in Iraq."

Military officials originally claimed that the dead were the victims of a roadside bomb, they later changed this story to say that the dead were the result of gun exchanges after Iraqis opened fire on US troops.

However, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have now suggested that the deaths took place over a period of three to five hours.

The killings at Haditha mark at least the third time US military officials have presented shifting official versions of events in Iraq, a record that, critics say, has damaged the Pentagon's credibility. Over the last year, the Pentagon has been embarrassed by its campaign to concoct a hero's death in Afghanistan for the football star Pat Tillman, although he was in fact killed by his fellow US Rangers in friendly fire.

The Pentagon also fabricated tales about a wounded and captured private, Jessica Lynch, that were later debunked.

American credibility in Iraq is on the floor as we have proof that the Pentagon appears to consistently lie whenever any allegation that hurts their image appears.

They can hardly be surprised if we watch this develop with a large amount of cynicism.

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