Iraq:Up to 10 US marines are under investigation for the deaths of eight Iraqi prisoners during the November 2004 battle for Fallujah, marking the third war crimes probe of marines at California's Camp Pendleton, a government spokesman said yesterday.
Ed Buice, a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said he could not disclose details of the inquiry at the US Marine Corps base. But he said none of the marines under investigation are being held in detention.
Nat Helms, a Vietnam veteran who has written a book about the marines' battle for Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar province, provided an account of the deaths on his website - defendourmarines.com - writing that eight Iraqi prisoners were executed.
He claims marines held eight unarmed Iraqi men in a house during the battle and executed them after receiving orders to move to a new location.
The allegation is another embarrassment for the US military fighting in Iraq and Camp Pendleton.
In June 2006, seven marines and a US navy corps man were charged in the April 2006 killing of a 52-year-old grandfather in Hamdania, Iraq.
According to testimony, the man was kidnapped from his bed and killed in a scenario planned to make his death look like he was planting a bomb.
Four of the troops have pleaded guilty to reduced charges, while the remaining three marines denied charges including kidnapping and murder and are awaiting court martial.
In December 2006, eight marines from the same platoon being investigated in the Fallujah killings were charged over the November 2005 killings of 24 residents of Haditha, Iraq.
The latest investigation began after a marine admitted during a polygraph test for a job with the US Secret Service that he participated in a wrongful death, according to Helms.
- (Reuters)