A U.S. military investigation has found that a number of Marines, including several commanding officers up the chain of command, allegedly falsified reports or chose to ignore the evidence that strongly indicated U.S. Marines deliberately killed innocent Iraqi civilians.
A dozen Marines are under investigastion for the shooting deaths of up to 24 civilians at Haditha last November.
First reports from Marines said the civilians were killed by an IED or improvised explosive device. A second report said the civilians were killed in a crossfire.
But photographic evidence gathered by the Marines themselves indicates the cilivans, including women and childen were killed execution style.