CAMP PENDLETON -- A general said Friday that it now appears a battalion commander in charge of Marines involved in the 2005 slayings of two dozen civilians in the city of Haditha failed to fully report everything he knew about the incident.

The general, Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, said he has concerns about whether the commander, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, was telling him everything he knew about the Nov. 19 incident.

"The question becomes did he report everything he knew and I have some questions about that," Huck said at the conclusion of more than two hours of testimony conducted via a video hookup from the Pentagon.

Huck commanded the 2nd Marine Division and the II Marine Expeditionary Force Forward and was one of Chessani's bosses when the killings took place.

Now working in a planning post at the Pentagon, Huck testified on the third day of a hearing for Chessani that will help determine whether he face court-martial for dereliction of duty for failing to order an investigation into the killings.

Huck also said that he relied on his lower level commanders for full and accurate reporting of events.

"The reporting system is all built on accurate information being reported up the chain of command," he said.

Chessani had reported on Nov. 19 that 15 civilians and eight insurgents had died as a result of combat following a roadside bombing that killed a lance corporal and injured two other Marines. That initial report would be the official account of what happened for several weeks and was not changed until questions were raised by Time magazine in January 2005.

One of the first reports Huck saw indicated that Chessani had gone to the site of the bombing, a factor he said gave him a sense that the battalion commander was getting all the facts.

"There is a high level of confidence when a report comes through and says a battalion commander is on the scene," Huck said.

The general also said that a complaint by the Haditha town council on Nov. 27 that three entire families -- including several women and children -- had been killed in one of four homes stormed by the Marines following the bombing should have been brought to his attention. Chessani attended a meeting in which that complaint was issued in writing along with a request by the Iraqis for a formal investigation.

"If that document was presented, this needs to be reported and that commander should be thinking 'Perhaps I should get an investigation started,'" Huck said.

But it wasn't until Feb. 13 that an official investigation was ordered by U.S. military commanders above Huck. Fourteen months later, Marine Corps prosecutors charged Chessani, three other officers and four enlisted Marines.

For a full report on Friday's hearing, see Saturday's North County Times.

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