Military Misconduct

Two Afghan men testified Tuesday that a Marine special operations convoy fired on their vehicles without provocation during an incident last March in which as many as 19 Afghans were reported killed. Testifying from Afghanistan by video link, the men told a court of inquiry that they had pulled their vehicles to the side of the highway when the Marines suddenly opened fire. They said they did not see anyone fire at the convoy, which had been struck by a van packed with explosives moments before.

In May, Army Col. John Nicholson created an uproar when he said he was "deeply ashamed" that U.S. Marines had killed Afghan civilians during an incident two months earlier. Marine commanders said Nicholson was wrong to denounce the Marines while investigations were still underway. On Wednesday, Nicholson again criticized the Marines, this time during a Marine Corps court of inquiry investigating the March 4 incident.

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.

An Army military police unit that investigated a March attack on a Marine convoy in Afghanistan was not able to conduct a thorough examination of the entire scene because of limited manpower and hostility from civilians, according to testimony at a court of inquiry Monday. Army Lt.

An official panel of inquiry found Wednesday that Israel's failure to win the 2006 war in Lebanon stemmed from "flawed conduct" and "serious failings" by its political and military leadership, but concluded that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acted in what he thought was the country's best interest. The final report on the panel's 16-month investigation casts no personal blame on any leader. Critics of the embattled prime minister said that made it less likely he would soon be forced to resign.

The leader of an Army sniper team, testifying Friday as one of his soldiers went on trial for murder, said he ordered the sergeant to kill an Iraqi civilian to prevent their clandestine unit from being discovered. Testimony by Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley appeared to boost the defense of Sgt. Evan Vela, the last of three snipers to face a court-martial for actions last year southwest of Baghdad. Hensley and Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval Jr.

Army Sgt. Evan Vela held back tears as he said at his court-martial Saturday that he had killed an Iraqi man who had stumbled into his sniper team's camp. Vela told the court on the second day of his trial that his superior officer, Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, ordered him to shoot the Iraqi. "I thought he was going to let him go," said Vela, who is charged with murder, planting a weapon and making false statements. "I heard the word 'shoot.' My next memory is the man was dead.

A Colombian army colonel and 14 soldiers were convicted Monday of killing members of an elite, U.S.-trained counter- narcotics police squad on the orders of drug traffickers, one of the most sordid of several recent cases of alleged corruption in the armed forces. A judge in Cali found Col. Bayron Carvajal and the soldiers guilty of aggravated homicide in the slaughter of 10 police officers and an informant in a May 2006 ambush outside a rural nursing home near Cali.

The Japanese prime minister has described the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by an American Marine as "unforgivable." The foreign minister declared that Japan has "had enough" of such incidents. And the government's most senior Cabinet official promised that Japan would raise the issue of misconduct with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits next week.

Lawyers released evidence Friday that they say shows British soldiers may have tortured and executed as many as 20 Iraqis after a battle in 2004, the most serious allegations of abuse made against British forces in Iraq. Attorneys for five surviving Iraqi men detained by British troops after the battle say witness testimony, death certificates and video all support the claims. They are demanding a public inquiry.