The Associated Press interviewed residents of an Iraqi village who say U.S. Marines massacred an innocent family.
Shortly after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine in a western Iraqi town last year, American forces went into nearby houses and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three year-old-girl, residents told The Associated Press.
The story of the incident told to the AP on Monday was largely forgotten until last week when the military said it was investigating potential misconduct by Marines after a Nov. 19 insurgent attack in the town of Haditha, 220 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
The allegations against the Marines were first brought forward by Time magazine that said it obtained a videotape two months ago taken by a Haditha journalism student inside the houses and local morgue.
A news release accompanying Time’s account of events in its Monday edition mirrored what was told independently to AP by residents who described what happened as “a massacre.”
Khaled Ahmed Rsayef, whose brother and six other members of his family were killed in the incident, said the roadside bomb exploded at about 7:15 a.m. in al-Subhani neighborhood heavily damaging a U.S. humvee.
At the time, a U.S. military statement described it as an ambush on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol that left 15 civilians, eight insurgents and a U.S. Marine dead in the bombing and subsequent firefight. The statement said the 15 civilians were killed by the blast, a claim the residents denied.
They said the only shooting done after the bomb exploded was by U.S. forces.
“American troops immediately cordoned the area and raided two nearby houses, shooting at everyone inside,” said Rsayef. “It was a massacre in every sense of the word.”