Marine execution footage aired
2004-11-16 07:28
Washington - Several US television networks aired footage on Monday of members of a US marine unit entering a mosque in Fallujah before one marine shot an unarmed, wounded man in the head as he lay prone against a wall.
Television networks said the marine who killed the wounded man had been detained and could face prosecution.
The reports said the unnamed marine had been wounded in the face the day before the killing but had returned to duty almost immediately.
CBS News showed a still photo from the film depicting the marine standing above the slumped figure aiming his rifle at the man's body.
It aired excerpts of a discussion between the marines.
"He's dead now," one marine in the squad shouts after the shooting.
NBC said the film of the man being shot in the head was "too gruesome" to be seen on screens.
NBC said the dead man, one of about five pictured inside the mosque, was an unarmed insurgent who had been discovered the previous day and been left to await medical attention.
The sequence was captured on film by an embedded camera operator who entered the mosque with the marine squad.
Other networks including CNN, ABC and Fox News also showed the sequence.
Lieutenant Colonel Bob Miller, a military judge leading an investigation into the shooting, told NBC in an interview that the rules of engagement in Iraq "authorise the marines to use force when presented with a hostile act or hostile intent".
Miller added: "Any wounded - even in this case wounded - insurgent, who does not pose a threat would not be considered hostile."
The Defence Department in Washington said it had no information about the incident.