America in new Iraq Shame

U.S. military officials say the killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha in November appears to have been an unprovoked attack by U.S. Marines, after an investigation found the victims died of gunshot wounds, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The findings of the investigation contradicted Marines' claims that the civilians were victims of a roadside bomb, the newspaper said.
The Times report, citing an unidentified senior military official in Iraq, said the investigation in February and March led by Col. 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.
"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.
In an interview with CNN, new Iraqi ambassador to the United States Samir al-Sumaidaie said there appeared to have been other killings of civilians by Marines in Haditha, where some of his family lives.
The ambassador said Marines shot and killed his cousin during a house-to-house search several months before the November incident.
"I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily," al-Sumaidaie said. He said three other unarmed youths were shot dead by Marines in a later incident in the area.
"They were in a car, they were unarmed, I believe, and they were shot."
Watt's investigation also reviewed cash payments totalling $38,000 (20,000 pounds) made within weeks of the November shootings to families of victims, The New York Times said.
In an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday, Maj. Dana Hyatt said his superiors told him to compensate the relatives of 15 victims, but the other dead civilians had been determined to have committed hostile acts, leaving their families ineligible for compensation.
The U.S. military sometimes pays compensation to relatives of civilian victims.
Residents of Haditha, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad in an area that has seen much activity by Sunni Arab insurgents, have told Reuters that U.S. Marines attacked houses after their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb.
On November 20, U.S. Marines spokesman Captain Jeffrey Pool issued a statement saying that, on the previous day, a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine. In a later gun battle, U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed eight insurgents, he added.
U.S. military officials have since confirmed to Reuters that that version of the events of November 19 was wrong and that the 15 civilians were not killed by the blast but were shot dead.