Marines accused of cover-up after Haditha killings

In the Marine Corps, they are quietly calling it their My Lai, the massacre of hundreds of villagers in 1968 that became a symbol for American brutality in the Vietnam war. In this generation's war, the village is Haditha, north-west of Baghdad, where US marines killed two dozen Iraqi civilians, including 11 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 in Baghdad initially claimed that the Iraqi civilians killed last November 19 were the victims of a roadside bomb, which exploded near a bus and a military Humvee, killing one marine and 15 Iraqis. Later, officials said the civilians were killed in rapid exchanges of fire between marines and Iraqi militants who had opened fire on the convoy.

However, evidence later gathered by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service suggested that the bloodshed took place over three to five hours.

Yesterday, the LA Times quoted a senior defence department official as saying that none of the 24 Iraqis was killed by the bomb. Although Haditha has proved one of the deadliest cities in Iraq for US troops, none of the marines had come under serious hostile fire on that day.

Officials said most of the bullets were fired from a small number of rifles, although as many as a dozen members of the marine unit are under investigation.

With the investigation approaching completion the Pentagon has begun to try to avoid outrage in Congress as happened two years ago when abuse at Abu Ghraib prison first became public knowledge.

Members of Congress briefed by the Marine Corps have been horrified. Last week, John Murtha, a former marine and Vietnam veteran and a Democratic Congressman who opposes the war, issued a statement saying the civilians had been killed in cold blood by marines who had snapped under the pressures of war.

The episode has also led to serious concern within the Marine Corps about an erosion of values and morale in the midst of a long and brutal insurgency. On Tuesday, the top marine commandant, General Michael Hagee, left for Iraq to deliver speeches on "the American way of war".

However, human rights officials and some members of Congress say they are deeply troubled by the Marine Corps' response to the Haditha killings.

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