US Marines investigated for Iraq war crimes - World - Times Online

US Marines investigated for Iraq war crimes - World - Times Online

US Marines investigated for Iraq war crimes
By Jenny Booth and agencies

About a dozen US Marines are being investigated for possible war crimes after the deaths last year of 15 Iraqi civilians caught in the crossfire during a gun battle with insurgents.

The Navy has opened a criminal investigation into the gun battle last November between Marines and insurgents after a roadside ambush, said US defence officials.

The inquiry will ask whether the Marines acted appropriately when they fired back at insurgents following the bomb attack in Haditha, 220 km (140 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

At first, officials said that the civilians were killed by the bomb, but it has now emerged that they were hit during the battle that ensued.

Claims of possible violations were first brought to the attention of the military by a journalist last month, said a defence official. Military officials in Iraq completed a preliminary investigation and have now forwarded it to the Navy Criminal Investigative Service there.

The incident began when a roadside bomb exploded next to a joint Iraqi-US patrol, immediately followed by a barrage of small arms fire. One Marine, eight insurgents and 15 civilians were killed during the firefight which ensued. Two other Marines were wounded.

Defence officials would not identify the unit or Marines involved in the investigation. Officials will ask whether the Marines followed the international law of armed conflict, including whether they positively identified or tried to identify the enemy and whether they determined there was hostile intent, as they are supposed to do. Anyone found in violation can be held liable for war crimes and be court-martialled under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

In Baghdad today, drive-by gunmen have targeted the streams of devout Shia Muslim pilgrims who are starting to head south to the holy city of Karbala, 80 km (50 miles) to the south, for a religious holiday.

At about 7.30am, a BMW sedan driving alongside pilgrims in the western district of Adil opened fire, killing three and wounding two, said police Lieutenant Thair Mahmoud. Police later reported a second incident, also in western Baghdad, in which armed men riding in a car fired on pilgrims near Um al-Tuboul Square, wounding three.

Authorities fear that the annual pilgrimage, including many families with children, will present "soft" targets in the continuing Sunni-Shia sectarian violence. To help guard against violence in Shia holy cities, the US military dispatched a fresh battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armoured Division, about 700 troops, to Iraq from its base in Kuwait to provide extra security.

A stand-off between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority underlies the political impasse blocking the formation of a new government of national unity. An all-party meeting was scheduled for later today to try to move those negotiations forward.

The US Army gave an update this morning on a large counter-insurgency operation involving 1,500 US and Iraqi troops, codenamed Operation Swarmer, that began last night in farming country near the city of Samarra in Salahuddin province, central Iraq. So far 41 arrests have been made, although ten people were later released. Six weapons caches were uncovered.

"We believe we achieved tactical surprise," said Lieutenant Colonel Edward Loomis, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division.

The deputy governor of Salahuddin province, Abdullah Hussein, told reporters today that intelligence indicated that there were about 200 insurgents in the area, including people linked to the Baathist group Jaish Muhammad - Muhammad’s Army - and to the al-Qaeda in Iraq terror group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.