The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Friday that he planned hearings into the military's investigation of whether Marines from Camp Pendleton brutally killed two dozen Iraqi civilians and lied to cover up possible war crimes.
Although the administrative investigation into the Nov. 19 incident in Haditha, Iraq, has not been completed, the comments by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) suggested that its findings would be crucial.
"I don't want the actions of one squad in one city on one morning to be used to symbolize or characterize or tar the actions of our great troops," Hunter told a Washington news conference.
He put the number of dead at about 24 and indicated that frontline troops might not have been truthful in their initial accounts to their officers. Previous accounts have put the noninsurgent fatality count at 15, including several women and children.
The Haditha incident threatens to be the most scandalous episode involving the Marines in Iraq.
Hunter said a hearing would look at the thoroughness and "integrity" of the investigation being done by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell and the recommendations to be made by Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the top operational commander in Iraq, once he reviews that investigation. Hunter said he expected the "voluminous" report to be sent to Chiarelli late next week and recommendations to be made within several days.
In a teleconference with reporters Friday, Chiarelli said the military "took these allegations very, very seriously."
Along with the administrative investigation underway by Bargewell, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating to determine whether any of the Marines should face charges. That report is expected in June.
A dozen troops from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division have been accused by Iraqis of bursting into their homes and firing in anger because a Marine had just been killed by a roadside bomb.
At first, the Marine Corps claimed the Iraqis were killed by an insurgent bomb or during a firefight. But after a report in Time magazine, the Corps backed off that assertion. The magazine obtained video footage taken by Iraqis showing bullet-riddled bodies and quoted Iraqis saying that there was no firefight.
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) said this week that the Marines had "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." A critic of the Bush administration over the war, Murtha said that continued deployment in Iraq had pushed the troops to the breaking point.
