A US sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, in which as many as 24 civilians were killed, denied any cover-up and said his unit did not intentionally target civilians, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
Quoting his attorney, the Post said that Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 26, maintains that military rules of engagement were followed when several civilians were killed on Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents firing at them from inside a house.
"The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield," the report said.
Neal Puckett, who represents Wuterich in ongoing investigations into the incident, said: "It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines."
"He's really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians," the Post quoted Puckett as saying.
The paper described Wuterich's version of what happened in Haditha as "the first public account from a Marine who was on the ground when the shootings occurred."
The US military has started two investigations into events at Haditha where 24 civilians are said to have been killed after a US marine died in a roadside bombing. One is a criminal investigation and a second into whether a coverup was carried out.
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