A US military investigation found evidence showing all the civilians killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha in November had gunshot wounds, contradicting Marines' claims they were victims of a roadside bomb, the New York Times reported yesterday.
US military officials now say the killings of up to 24 civilians, including women and children, appear to have been an unprovoked attack by Marines, the newspaper said.
The report, citing an unidentified senior military official in Iraq, said the investigation in February and March led by Colonel Gregory Watt, an Army officer in Baghdad, uncovered death certificates showing the Iraqis were shot mostly in the head and chest.
The three-week probe was the first official investigation into the killings, which Marines initially attributed to a roadside bomb.
"There were enough inconsistencies that things didn't add up," the senior official was quoted as saying by the Times.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had been briefed on the conclusion of Watt's preliminary investigation, the newspaper said. The findings have not been made public.
Watt's investigation also reviewed cash payments of US$38,000 made within weeks of the shootings to families of victims, the New York Times said.
In an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday, Major Dana Hyatt said his superiors told him to compensate the relatives of 15 victims, but that the rest of those killed had been determined to have committed hostile acts, leaving their families ineligible for compensation. The US military sometimes pays compensation to relatives of civilian victims.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, four people were killed when insurgents assaulted a police station, a sports commentator was shot dead near his home and around 40 bodies were recovered in and around the capital.
Over the last two days alone more than 100 people have been killed in a wave of bombings and shootings in Iraq. The US has reported gains in developing local forces, but also a rise in attacks, higher casualties and greater sectarian violence.
In Baghdad, explosions resounded across the city as insurgents assaulted a police station in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah, where just two days earlier dozens of people were killed in car bombings.
In other violence, a sports correspondent for state-owned television station Iraqiya was shot dead as he left his home in the capital, just days after two British journalists were killed in a Baghdad bombing.
also see story:
Iraqi PM declares state of emergency in restive Basra
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2