A US military report found that senior Marine officers failed to investigate conflicting and false reports of the killings of up to 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year, US media have reported.
Despite evidence that initial reports the civilians died in a roadside bomb attack were false, the investigation found that no Marine officer in the chain of command questioned the original account despite several "red flags," CBS News said.
The New York Times quoted two Defence Department officials as saying that Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, head of ground forces in Iraq, had faulted senior staff of the Second Marine Division and recommended unspecified disciplinary action for some officers.
"He concludes that some officers were derelict in their duties," the Times quoted one of the officials as saying.
Iraqi officials accuse Marines of shooting dead up to 24 people in Haditha, including women and children in their homes, after a Marine was killed in a roadside bomb attack. It would be the worst known case of US military abuse in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
The military said earlier yesterday that General George Casey, the top US military commander in Iraq, had been sent the report on whether there was a cover-up of Marines' involvement in the killings. The findings have not been released officially.
"Chiarelli completed his findings and recommendations today and forwarded copies of the report to the commander (of) Multi-National Forces-Iraq," the military said in a statement.
The report is separate from a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe that US politicians privy to some evidence have said seems likely to lead to charges of premeditated murder.
CBS said the report found there was no effort to correct an inaccurate US military press release, which repeated the initial false report that civilians were killed by a roadside bomb. In fact, they were all killed by gunshot wounds.
The distribution by one Marine officer of $38,000 in compensation payments to the victims' families was another clear signal that the original report was wrong, CBS cited the investigation as saying.