Attorneys, Marines still awaiting word on Haditha case; Camp Pendleton unit remains under scrutiny in deaths of 24 civilians last November

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Monday, October 23, 2006 10:49 PM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY -- Nearly eight months after they first came under scrutiny, a group of Camp Pendleton Marines is still awaiting word on whether they will face charges in the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November.

The two dozen Iraqis gunned down in Haditha on Nov. 19 included several women and children, sparking an international outcry when the case first came to light.

Iraqi witnesses have contended that Marines from the 1st squad, 3rd platoon of Kilo Company attached to Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment went on a rampage after one of their own was killed.

As the Haditha case simmers with no clear idea of how or when it will be resolved, military prosecutors continue to press the unrelated case of seven Camp Pendleton Marines and a Navy corpsman charged in the death of a man in the Iraqi village of Hamdania. Those Marines are from the base's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

No one has been charged in the Haditha case, which garnered worldwide attention when the killings were first profiled in a Time magazine report.

Mark Zaid, an attorney for one of the Marines in the Haditha incident, said Monday that all those associated with that case "are in the dark" about whether military prosecutors intend to charge any of the Marines.

"Obviously, everybody is waiting to see what will happen and when we can get this over with," Zaid said during a telephone interview from his offices in Washington.

His client, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, maintains he and his fellow Marines did nothing wrong that day. Wuterich remains at Camp Pendleton, Zaid said, where he is "doing great."

Capt. Kate Wallace, a military spokeswoman at the Marine Corps' Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said Monday that there was no updated information about the status of the Haditha investigation.

Last month, a massive report on how Marine commanders in Iraq responded to the initial reports of the civilian deaths in Haditha and their follow-up actions was filed with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Senior Defense Department officials have previously said the report finds fault with some of the Marine commanders' actions but does not find there was any attempt at an orchestrated cover-up.

Nonetheless, the report prepared under the direction of now-retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell is expected to lead to administrative actions against some of the officers for failing to fully investigate the Haditha killings when they were first reported.

A corresponding probe conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was filed in early September with Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, who has asked the agency to "go deeper" into several aspects.

As he is in the Hamdania case involving the kidnapping and killing of 52-year-old Iraqi Hashim Ibrahim Awad on April 26, Mattis is the "convening authority" who will ultimately decide whether any of the Marines in the Haditha incident will face criminal charges.

The Haditha case unfolded when a patrol of Marines in Humvees passing through the city was attacked.

The attack began with the detonation of a roadside bomb that claimed the life of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, Texas. The Marines there that day have told investigators that immediately after the bombing, they also came under attack from insurgents armed with AK-47 assault rifles, shots they said were coming from one or more nearby homes.

The first Iraqis to die when the squad began returning fire were four men who emerged from a car and began running. None of those men have been determined by investigators to be insurgents, according to published reports.

The squad radioed word of the attack to commanders, and eventually stormed through four homes in search of the insurgents.

The shooting that took place in two of the homes appeared justified, sources close the case have said, but the assault on the two other homes may have violated the Marine Corps rules of engagement.

Those allow a combat operation against any source of fire or suspected insurgent stronghold, but are clear in directing that lethal force not be used against children or apparent civilians unless absolutely necessary. Five women and six children were among those killed.

Wuterich, who has filed a libel suit against U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., for the lawmaker's comments that the squad killed "in cold blood," contends the unit was abiding by the rules of engagement, did not intentionally target civilians and made no effort to conceal what had occurred.

It is not clear when Defense Department or Marine Corps authorities will announce their decision in the Haditha case.

A Georgetown military law professor and former Marine Corps legal officer, Gary Solis, said last week that the service may want to "clear the decks" in the Hamdania case before moving ahead in the Haditha incident.

-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.