Iraq video fans new criticism

WASHINGTON -- New video footage released yesterday showed the bodies of several Iraqi civilians, including children, who were apparently killed during a US raid on a house in March, but Pentagon officials said an inquiry into the case had found that US forces used appropriate force in the attack on what they called a terrorist hideout.

Iraqi officials condemned the event in March, but it had faded from view until yesterday, when video images of the aftermath of the US operation in the northern town of Ishaqi set off a new round of criticism of American treatment of civilians on the battlefield.

The Ishaqi case was the third accusation in a week involving alleged misconduct by US forces in Iraq, fueling angry reactions by Iraqi officials.

On Thursday, US military officials said they expect eight Marines and one Navy medic to face murder charges for executing an Iraqi in the town of Hamandiya, west of Baghdad in April.

A more sweeping military investigation into the shooting deaths of 24 civilians in the western town of Haditha in November is also underway based on mounting evidence that the civilians were deliberately shot by Marines and not killed by a car bomb as the Marines had originally contended.

The US command in Baghdad this week ordered refresher training for all military personnel in Iraq to remind them of their duty to adhere to the laws of armed conflict and to protect civilians, but the Ishaqi allegations raised fresh ire among Iraqis.

``It looks like the killing of Iraqi civilians is becoming a daily phenomenon," Muayed al-Anbaki , chairman of the Iraqi Human Rights Association, said yesterday after video ran on Iraqi television of the bodies of those slain in the raid in Ishaqi in March.

US military officials in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that an investigation of the March case had found that four people died when the American ground and air assault destroyed a suspected Al Qaeda hideout after enemy fire came from the dwelling.

But the British Broadcasting Corp. quoted Iraqi police on Thursday as saying 11 people, five children and six adults, were killed in the March 15 attack -- and that they had been systematically shot to death by the Americans, not killed in an airstrike.

The BBC broadcast video footage it said it had obtained from Iraqis in the town. The footage showed images of dead bodies inside the wreckage of the house.

Yesterday, Associated Press Television News broadcast similar footage it said one of its cameramen had taken on March 15 at the scene. The AP film showed at least one adult male and four young children with obvious entry wounds to the head. One child has an entry wound to the side caused by a bullet. The video included shots of the bodies of five children and two men wrapped in blankets and showed the bodies of three children in the back of a pickup truck that took them to the hospital in nearby Tikrit.

On the AP video , an unidentified man, apparently a witness, says ``children were stuck in the room, alone and surrounded. . . . After they handcuffed them, they shot them dead. Later, they struck the house with their planes.

``They wanted to hide the evidence. Even a 6-month-old infant was killed. Even the cows were killed, too," he said.

The AP quoted Riyadh Majid , who identified himself as the nephew of Faez Khalaf , the head of the household who was killed, as saying at the time that US forces landed in helicopters and raided the home. Khalaf's brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were relatives who lived at the house and two were visitors.

US defense officials, speaking on the condition that they not be named, maintained that the troops were searching for a suspected insurgent collaborator and opened fire on the house only after they were fired on. The military's investigation at the time said the Al Qaeda sympathizer was later captured, the officials said.

Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki , who has criticized what he has called heavy-handed tactics by American troops, said yesterday that he would ask US authorities to share their findings on the cases of alleged military misconduct with the new Iraqi government.

Standing beside US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad during a visit to a new power plant in Baghdad, Maliki said he first heard of the alleged Nov. 19 massacre in Haditha and others through the media.

``I hope it will be fair for the sake of all the victims," Maliki, whose government of national unity was sworn in 13 days ago, said of the Haditha investigation.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing relatives of those who died in Haditha said yesterday that the shooting was carried out by three or four Marines, while 20 more waited outside, according to the AP.

Marine commanders in Iraq learned within two days of the killings in Haditha that civilians had died from gunfire rather than a roadside bomb, but the officers saw no reason to investigate further, The New York Times reported today, quoting a Marine general familiar with the investigation.

Top US commanders in Iraq sought to assure the public that they are thoroughly investigating all allegations, and warned against blaming all soldiers in Iraq for any criminal acts that may have been committed by a few.

``The incidents receiving a great deal of media attention lately do not reflect the honorable service of nearly 150,000 coalition forces currently serving in Iraq," Brigadier General Donald Campbell , chief of staff for Multinational Corps Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon via satellite from Baghdad. ``In the face of difficult and often dangerous circumstances, they demonstrate the discipline, sound judgment, and high moral standards that are hallmarks of the military profession."

Nevertheless, when asked what might be the underlying cause of unprovoked killings, he said that ``when you're in the combat theater dealing with enemy combatants who don't abide by the law of war, who do acts of indecency, [soldiers] become stressed, they become fearful. It's very difficult to determine in some cases on this battlefield who is a combatant and who is a civilian."

He added: ``They see their buddies getting blown up on occasion and they could snap."

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld , traveling in Singapore, urged caution in drawing any conclusions about Haditha. ``We know that 99.9 percent of our forces conduct themselves in an exemplary manner, and we also know that in conflicts things that shouldn't happen do happen. There's an investigation with respect to what took place, and we'll soon know the answers."

Rumsfeld said he fully supported the decision to provide refresher training on the laws of war, which officials said would include a briefing for all solders on the importance of values, laws that govern conduct in combat, and Iraqi culture.

``The package is designed to generate an interactive discussion of potential situations and what decisions and actions would be required," Campbell said.

Still, the need to reinforce to troops their responsibilities under international law suggested to some human rights specialists that soldiers may be stepping over the line.

``To have the higher-ups re-create a professional environment so soldiers understand they cannot drift from the norms or react in this manner is an interesting indication of an evolution of the mindset there among the troops," said Mohammad-Mahomoud Ould Mohamedou , associate director of Harvard University's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research.

Added Aine Donovan , a former Naval Academy professor and director of the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College: ``Hopefully this is a wake-up call for people in the military."

Material from wire services was included in this report. Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.