Inquiry into civilian deaths

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A CRIMINAL investigation into the alleged massacre of 15 civilians, including women and children, is casting a long shadow over George Bush’s fresh attempt to persuade world opinion that real progress is being made in Iraq.

US military investigators arrived in Iraq yesterday to study reports that Marines shot dead unarmed civilians in Haditha on November 19 last year. Initial claims that they had been killed by a roadside bomb have been discounted, with military officials acknowledging that the civilians died at the hands of the Marines.

The investigation will seek to determine whether the civilians died in crossfire, as the Marines now claim, or were deliberately killed. Iraqi witnesses say the troops went on the rampage after a bomb killed one of their comrades.
In a series of public appearances this week Mr Bush has tried to focus attention on Tal Afar, where good relations have been established with local people.

But yesterday US television stations were broadcasting a video obtained by Time Magazine of Haditha after the shooting. It shows that many victims, including a child aged 2, were in their nightclothes when they died. Doctors say that most were shot in the chest and head at close range. Human rights groups have repeatedly claimed that civilians are being killed unnecessarily.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2097541,00.html