Iraqis Reject U.S. Report On Killings

Pentagon Cleared Troops In Ishaqi Raid, Iraqis Don't Agree

(CBS/AP) 
So far three marines have been relieved of command, reports. One of them, Capt. James Kimber, who says he had nothing to do with Haditha, spoke out in defense of the Marines.

“They're the ones out there doing it every day. I mean every day,” he told Martin. “You know, asked to make life and death decisions. They're walking on the knife's edge every single day.

But according to U.S. lawmakers briefed by military officials, the Marines, enraged by the loss of a comrade, stormed into nearby homes in the area and allegedly shot occupants dead as well as several men in a taxi that arrived at the scene of the blast.
In one of the homes, Marines ordered four brothers inside a closet and shot them dead, said the Haditha lawyer, Khaled Salem Rsayef.

Rsayef said he himself lost several relatives in the alleged massacre, including a sister and her husband, an aunt, an uncle and several cousins. He and his brother, Salam Salem Rsayef, spoke to The Associated Press from the Euphrates River town of 90,000 late Thursday and Friday.

As relatives and witnesses, the Rsayef brothers met at least four times with U.S. military investigators looking into the killings. The meetings, they said, began in February and were held at Samarra General Hospital. The time and venue of each meeting were relayed in advance to the relatives by doctors at the hospital, they said.

The next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, the two brothers said, suggesting that the U.S. investigations into the 6-month-old affair are not finished.

Khaled Salam Rsayef identified the four brothers shot and killed in a closet as Jamal Ayed Ahmed, 41, a car dealer; Chassib Ayed Ahmed, 27, a traffic policeman; Marwan Ayed Ahmed, 28, an engineer; and Kahtan Ayed Ahmed, 24, a local government employee. He said the U.S. military did not give compensation payments to their families because the brothers were believed to be insurgents.

Rsayef said his account of what happened was based on his personal observations from the rooftop of his home and windows. His house is only several dozen yards away from the three homes raided by Marines. The killings, which he did not witness in person, were recounted to him and other members of his family the following day by survivors.

He said his own home shook violently when the roadside bomb went off at 7:15 a.m. and that intermittent gunfire lasted for about two hours. He could not go out of his house to see for himself, but managed to steal quick glances from his roof and from behind windows.

“About 5 p.m. I emerged with my family carrying white flags,” he said. “We wanted to move away from the area fearing that shooting could resume.”

In the third incident, a man was shot in Hamandiya, near Baghdad, in April. The Iraqi was reportedly dragged from his home and killed by U.S. military personnel. The Los Angeles Times and NBC News said troops may have planted an AK-47 and shovel near the body to make it appear the man was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman could face murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges as early as Friday, according to a defense attorney.

More than 4,000 Iraqis — many of them civilians — have been killed in war-related violence this year, including at least 936 in May alone, according to an AP count, as civilians, not Iraqi security forces, are increasingly the casualties of violence.