Marines were shot at, Army expert testifies
A Humvee in their convoy bore evidence of small-arms fire, an explosives specialist says. Up to 19 Afghan civilians died in the March incident under investigation.
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — An Army explosives expert testified Friday that a Humvee was hit by small-arms fire after a suicide car bomb attack last March on a Marine convoy whose gunners have been accused of killing as many as 19 Afghan civilians. Sgt. 1st Class Jason Mero offered the first definitive support for testimony by Marines on the convoy, who said their gunners fired because the Marines believed enemies were shooting at them. Attorneys for the Marines have said they fired on gunmen, not civilians.
Mero told a court of inquiry he was "100% certain" that small-arms fire struck the gunner's turret shield on the convoy's second Humvee, which was targeted by the car bomber. He said he was 90% certain that the Humvee's windshield and headlight were hit by small-arms fire.
An Afghan human rights group has accused the Marines from a special operations unit of firing indiscriminately at civilian vehicles and pedestrians after the suicide attack. An Army colonel in charge of the area, saying he was "deeply ashamed," told reporters and Afghans in May that the Marines had killed 19 Afghan civilians and wounded 50.
Mero, who examined the Humvee within two days of the March 4 incident, said he was pressured by the Air Force colonel in charge of the investigation to alter his conclusions. He said Col. Patrick Pihana first agreed that bullets had struck the Humvee, but changed his mind after talking to Afghan civilians near the bomb site.
"He was wanting me to change my opinion . . . to buck up his opinion" that the convoy was not fired on, Mero said. Though Pihana's pressure made him uncomfortable, Mero said, he did not change his conclusions.
Pihana has testified during the three-week inquiry, but only in classified sessions closed to the press and public.
Mero said he based his conclusions on an examination of several "divots" in the windshield and a hole in the headlight. A hard plastic coating on the turret shield was bent inward by the impact of a bullet fired from outside the Humvee, "just missing the gunner," he testified.
Mero also provided the inquiry's first description of the car bomb, which slightly wounded the Humvee gunner but did not cause extensive damage to convoy vehicles. He said the bomb -- made of fuel oil, ammonium nitrate fertilizer and mortars -- detonated prematurely about 15 feet from the second of the convoy's six Humvees.
