The powerful head of the House Armed Services Committee said on Friday that no matter what a probe of alleged war crimes by U.S. soldiers in western Iraq shows, he doesn't want to see all U.S. troops "tarred" by the possible actions of one unit.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said he believed there was more to last fall's bloody firefight in the Iraqi town of Haditha than the military had first reported.
A criminal investigation of the violence, which left at least 15 Iraqi civilians dead, is being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Hunter said he wanted to put the incident "in context" and didn't want to see all troops "tarred by what happened by one squad, at one place, on one morning."
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., earlier this week said Marines killed innocent women and children “in cold blood” during the attacks last November.
Murtha said U.S. troops overreacted and that nearly twice as many people were killed than first reported.
Hunter, who like Murtha is considered a staunch supporter of the military, said he believes that the number of people killed in the Haditha incident will be shown to number "20 or so," and that "initial reports that came up through the chain of command did not tell the story."
Probe defended
Hunter disputed reports that investigations of the incident had been held back for political reasons. He said military commanders had told him that the two probes will be completed by early June, the first as early as next week.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in an interview Thursday with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News Channel, said, "Needless to say, we have to take seriously allegations of that type. And they’re under investigation, and they will then be handled in the normal order of things.”
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he would not comment on the veracity of Murtha’s remarks, but said individuals will be held accountable if it is determined they did something wrong. He added that U.S. troops “are facing a host of enemies in a tough and challenging environment every day.”
'No firefight'
About a dozen Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, are being investigated for war crimes in connection with the firefight to determine if they violated the rules of military engagement.
During a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill, Murtha said the investigation will show that “in fact there was no firefight, there was no explosion that killed the civilians in a bus. There was no bus. There was no shrapnel, there was only bullet holes inside the house where the Marines had gone in.”
Murtha, a former Marine and veteran of combat in Vietnam, has been a consistent ally of the armed forces as a member of Congress. He has called in recent months for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
A videotape taken by an Iraqi shows the aftermath of the alleged Haditha attack: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.
The video, obtained by Time magazine, was broadcast a day after Haditha residents told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a Marine.
Defense officials announced last month that three Marines from the 3rd Battalion were relieved of their commands in connection with problems during their deployment to Iraq. Gibson said it would be inappropriate to link their reassignments to the Haditha incident.
The three were reassigned to new duties within the division because of a lack of confidence in their leadership abilities, officials said at the time.