Friendly fire deaths of Marines in Iraq detailed in report

As many as 10 Marines may have been killed by friendly fire in the midst of the deadliest battle of the Iraq war when a Marine air controller mistakenly cleared Air Force A-10 jets to shoot on US positions, according to a long-awaited military investigation.

The report, portions of which were obtained Saturday, paints a chaotic picture of the March 23, 2003, battle in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, as Marines fought to seize two bridges crucial to the American advance on Baghdad.

When Marine units around the city lost communication, commanders became confused about the location of US troops. Two tank-busting jets were given permission by a controller to attack what turned out to be a forward Marine company. The documents describe 15 minutes of air attacks on the friendly forces using 30mm Gatling guns, Maverick missiles, and bombs, ending in the destruction of two amphibious assault vehicles that were trying to evacuate wounded Marines.

The full report, running hundreds of pages, is scheduled to be released this week.

In contrast to the descriptions of precision bombing that have come to define the US military, Marine and Air Force investigators documented a chain of faulty battlefield assumptions by the Marine forward air controller and other commanders who did not know where their troops were arrayed on the battlefield and had scant means of communicating during the fight.

In all, 18 Marines were killed and 17 were wounded during three hours of intense fighting with Iraqi Army troops and militiamen.

"The A-10s targeted what turned out to be" US Marines, the report states, "making multiple passes against them.

"Eventually, the A-10s were told to cease fire, which they did."

Of the 18 killed, the investigation found that eight had died "solely" as the result of enemy fire. But it added, "the intensity of the enemy fire, combined with friendly fire, makes it impossible to conclusively determine the exact sequence and source of fires that killed the other 10 Marines." The Marines who might have been killed by friendly fire were not identified in the documents obtained. Of the 17 Marines wounded in the battle, four were hit by a combination of enemy and friendly fire, the investigation found.

In a carefully choreographed release, the nearly 900-page report was presented Saturday in briefings to relatives of Marines who had died that day. The emotional, and sometimes tense, sessions unfolded simultaneously in living rooms from Southern California to Connecticut.

Some relatives welcomed the briefings, saying the process would help them move on. Others said the report left painful questions unanswered.

Larry Hutchings, 52, of Boiling Springs, S.C., was told that his son, Corporal Nolen Hutchings, had died in a Marine vehicle hit by both a US missile and an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade. "They don't know which hit it first," he said.

The A-10s are equipped with gun cameras that take pictures of what they are shooting, but Hutchings said he had been told that the film no longer existed. "They said they were recorded over accidentally," he said.

The battle for the bridges in Nasiriyah began early on March 23, the fourth day of the war. The mission for Charlie Company, part of the First Battalion, Second Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., was to secure a bridge across the Saddam Canal on the northern edge of the city. Controlling the span was essential to opening a route for a massive Marine Expeditionary Force to attack Baghdad. Charlie Company, riding in a convoy of 11 amphibious assault vehicles, or tracks, ended up alone at the north bridge, with other units scattered at southern and eastern edges of the city.

As the surrounded company fought to hold the bridge, the Air Force A-10s began circling overhead. Initially, some of the Marines felt a sense of relief; American firepower was at hand. But the planes turned against them.

A Marine forward air controller, stationed with a unit southeast of the bridge, cleared two A-10 attack jets to fire upon vehicles north of the bridge.

The controller believed he was with the lead Marine unit and that only Iraqis were north of the canal, according to a separate Air Force report on the incident, which was included with the military investigation.

The air controller, responsible for directing jets in support of ground troops, did not realize that Charlie Company had seized the bridge, as ordered, and assumed positions to its north, the Air Force report states.

When he cleared the jets to attack targets north of the bridge, the forward air controller could see neither the jets nor the targets.

The controller, the report states, notified the A-10s "that no friendlies were north . . . of the canal."

The two jets then dropped three bombs on the Marines' positions, the report states. But Marines on the ground, apparently mistaking the bomb explosions for Iraqi mortar fire, did not realize they were under attack by US aircraft until the A-10s began firing at them with their rapid-fire 30mm guns, the report states.