Civilian deaths 'covered up'
2006-05-28 18:45
Washington - The fallout from the killing of Iraqi civilians by United States marines could undermine American efforts in Iraq more than the Abu Ghraib prison scandal did, said a US politician on Sunday.
The November shootings at Haditha were covered up, said Democratic representative John Murtha.
"Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" said Murtha on the ABC's This Week. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command."
A bomb rocked a military convoy on November 19, killing a US marine.
Murtha said US marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene in retaliation, and went into two homes and shot other people.
Early probe stifled
Murtha said he had received high-level reports that indicated that no one had fired on the marines or that there was any military action against the US forces after the initial explosion.
He said the deaths were not seriously investigated until March, because an early probe was stifled within days of the incident.
"I will not excuse murder, and this is what happened," said Murtha.
"This investigation should have been over two or three weeks afterwards and people should have been held responsible for it."
The US marine's Lieutenant-Colonel Scott Fazekas said the investigation was ongoing and would not comment.
Murtha is a former marine and a prominent critic of Bush administration policies in Iraq.
'This is worse than Abu Ghraib'
He repeated his view that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily and needed political solutions - which he said were damaged by such incidents involving the US.
"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," he said. "And we're set back every time something like this happens. This is worse than Abu Ghraib."
The incident at Haditha has sparked two investigations - one into the deadly encounter itself and another non-criminal investigation into whether it was the subject of a cover-up.
The second is examining whether US marines covered up what actually occurred that day and, in doing so, lied about having killed civilians without justification.
The marine corps had initially attributed 15 civilian deaths to the car bombing and a fire-fight with insurgents, eight of whom were reported killed.
On Friday, a defence official said evidence gathered so far strongly indicated that the Haditha killings were unjustified.
- AP