Shortly after a roadside bomb killed a US Marine in a western Iraqi town last year, US forces went into nearby houses and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three year-old-girl, residents said.
The story of the incident told 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, 220km north of Baghdad.
The allegations against the Marines were first brought forward by Time magazine, which said it had 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 said 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 7:15am in al-Subhani neighborhood, heavily damaging a US Humvee.
At the time, a US military statement described it as an ambush on a joint US-Iraqi patrol that left 15 civilians, eight insurgents and a US Marine dead in the bombing and subsequent firefight. The statement said the 15 civilians were killed by the blast, a claim residents denied.
They said the only shooting done after the bomb exploded was by US forces.
Shooting at everyone
"US troops immediately cordoned off the area and raided two nearby houses, shooting at everyone inside," said Rsayef. "It was a massacre in every sense of the word."
Rsayef and another resident, former city councilman Imad Jawad Hamza, said the first house to be stormed was that of Abdul-Hamid Hassan Ali, which was very close to the scene of the bomb attack.
Ali, 76, whose left leg was amputated years ago because of diabetes, died instantly after being shot in the stomach and chest. His wife, Khamisa, 66, was shot in the back. Ali's son Jahid, 43, was hit in the head and chest. Son Walid, 37, was killed after a grenade was thrown into his room, and a third son, 28-year-old Rashid, died after he was shot in the head and chest.
Also among the dead were son Walid's wife, Asma, 32, who was shot in the head, and his son Abdullah, 4, who was shot in the chest, both Rsayef and Hamza said.
Walid's eight-year-old daughter Iman, and his six-year-old son Abdul-Rahman, were wounded and taken by US troops to Baghdad for treatment. The only person who escaped unharmed was Walid's five-month-old daughter, Asia.
The three surviving children now live with their maternal grandparents, Rsayef and Hamza said.
Rsayef said those killed in the second house were his brother Younis, 43, who was shot in the stomach and chest, the brother's wife, Aida, 40, who was shot in the neck and upper chest while still in bed where she was recuperating from bladder surgery. Their eight-year-old son Mohammed was shot in the right arm and bled to death, Rsayef said.
The only survivor from his brother's family was 15-year-old daughter Safa, who now lives with her grandparents, Rsayef said.
Brothers killed
The troops then shot and killed four brothers who were walking in the street, Rsayef and Hamza said, identifying them as the sons of Ayed Ahmed -- Marwan, Qahtan, Jamal and Chaseb.
US troops also shot dead five men who were in a car near the scene, Hamza and Rsayef said. They identified the five as Khaled Ayad al-Zawi and his brother Wajdi as well as Mohammed Battal Mahmoud, Akram Hamid Flayeh and Ahmad Fanni Mosleh.
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