CAMP PENDLETON — Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in November 2004, according to civilian and military sources.
The investigation is at least the third of possible war crimes by Marines based here and involves the same company, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, that is at the center of the largest allegation of atrocities by U.S. troops in Iraq -- the alleged wrongful killing of 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.
In the Haditha case, three enlisted Marines face murder charges, and four officers are accused of failing to investigate the killings. Preliminary hearings are underway.
The two cases do not involve any of the same Marines. But some of those being interviewed in the Fallouja case were expected to serve as character witnesses for colleagues accused of murder in the Haditha case.
NCIS officials declined to provide details beyond confirming that they were probing "credible allegations of wrongdoing."
Military journalist and Vietnam veteran Nathaniel Helms, who wrote a book about the Marines in Fallouja and is among those interviewed by the NCIS, said the investigators were interested in an incident that took place early in the fighting there.
Helms said the Marines captured insurgents during the house-to-house fighting that characterized the battle, which Marines called their most intense urban combat since Vietnam. After subduing the insurgents and reporting back to their superiors, Marines were told to quickly move to another location to help colleagues engaged in a firefight.
Helms said Wednesday that when the Marines radioed to their superiors that they were still holding prisoners, the response was, "They're still alive?"
"That was taken to mean, 'Whack those dudes.' So they whacked them and moved on," Helms said. Minutes later an airstrike demolished the house, burying the bodies in rubble.
Helms first posted his account this week on a website, www.defendourMarines.com. Senior military sources contacted by The Times confirmed Wednesday that his description matches that of the incident under investigation.
Helms said he had interviewed Marines about the incident, but did not include it in his book about Fallouja, "My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story."
