SAN DIEGO, May 4, 2005
No Charges In Fallujah Shooting
A Marine Who Shot An Unarmed, Wounded Iraqi Won't Face Charges
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Play CBS Video Video Marine Shooting Uncertainty U.S. military investigators will not file formal charges against a Marine who shot and killed an unarmed Iraqi during the assault on Fallujah last November, Kimberly Dozier reports.
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Video Mosque Shooting Probed Authorities are investigating a videotaped incident at a Fallujah mosque in which a Marine appears to shoot and kill an already captive and wounded Iraqi prisoner. Wyatt Andrews reports.
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In this image from the original NBC video a U.S. marine is seen, left, raising his rifle in the direction of Iraqi prisoners lying on the floor of a mosque in Fallujah on Nov. 13, 2004. (AP)
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Interactive Fight For Fallujah A look at the insurgency and the assault, with photos, video and background on urban warfare.
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Interactive Two Years Later Major events, photos and more on the rebuilding of Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said that a review of the evidence showed the Marine's actions in the shooting were "consistent with the established rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict."
The corporal was not identified in a two-page statement issued by Camp Pendleton, the headquarters of the expeditionary force north of San Diego.
The Nov. 13 incident was videotaped by Kevin Sites, a freelance journalist on assignment for NBC.
The shooting occurred when a Marine unit entered the mosque and found five men wounded in fighting at the site the day before, when another Marine unit clashed with gunmen apparently using the mosque to fire from, according to Sites' broadcast.
In the video, as the cameraman moved into the mosque, a Marine in the background can be heard shouting obscenities and yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead. The Marine then raises his rifle toward an Iraqi lying on the floor of the mosque and shoots the man.
Before the opening of the Nov. 8 assault on rebel-held Fallujah, Marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed for use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the Marines first.
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