A general has dismissed charges against two Marines accused in the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in fall 2005, signaling that he will offer relief to a handful of Camp Pendleton troops accused of war crimes.

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Lt. Gen. James Mattis' decision, announced Thursday, came just days after he freed two junior Marines convicted in an unrelated incident, a kidnapping and killing plot that left an Iraqi man dead on the side of a road in the village of Hamdania.

The Haditha shootings occurred Nov. 19, 2005, when two dozen Iraqis were killed by Marines.

On Thursday, Mattis released a statement saying that the brutalities of war led him to drop the charges against one of the accused triggermen in the Haditha shootings and a Marine lawyer accused of not investigating the deaths.

Mattis ruled that neither Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 23, who said he killed Iraqi men in self defense, nor Capt. Randy Stone will face court-martial.

Reached at the family home in Pennsylvania, Sharratt's father said his son called Thursday to tell his parents the charges had been dropped.

"We believed in Justin's innocence all along," Darryl Sharratt said, his voice cracking on the phone. "We knew that he was not capable of what he was accused of doing. … We felt this could only end one way, that this would end in dismissal."

More than half of the 24 victims died in homes stormed by a squad of Camp Pendleton Marines moments after a roadside bomb shredded a Humvee and killed a lance corporal.

The squad members said they dodged gunfire after the explosion and raided the homes to chase their attackers.

The Marines have argued they followed their training, tossing grenades and spraying bullets in the first homes they entered. But the attack left Iraqi women and children dead.

Mattis said the killings were the result of "fighting a shadowy enemy who hides among the innocent people, does not comply with any aspect of the law of war, and routinely targets and intentionally draws fire toward civilians."

"The challenges of combat in this environment put extreme pressures on our Marines," Mattis continued. He also noted, "The experience of combat is difficult to understand intellectually and very difficult to appreciate emotionally."

Mattis is the head of Marine Corps forces in the Middle East and commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, and has authority over the prosecutions of the troops accused in the Haditha killings and the other murder case.

With the cases under a media microscope, Mattis apparently spent much of this week dealing with the legal outcomes of both the Hamdania and Haditha incidents.

The decision to drop the charges against Sharratt and Stone closely follows recommendations by investigating officers who heard evidence in the cases in the last few months.

The general also said he will not slap either man with an administrative punishment -- even though one had been recommended in Stone's case.

The move to dismiss charges against Sharratt and Stone comes on the heels of the general's decision on Monday to shave the remaining few months off jail sentences for two Marines in the Hamdania slaying.

Mattis is also considering leniency for the two Marines still jailed in the Hamdania case, including a sergeant sentenced last week to 15 years for murder.

Under federal law, Congress gives some commanders power to lighten sentences or drop charges against their troops. As what the military calls the convening authority in the war crime cases, Mattis has that power.

The convening authority is the person is in charge of the command and the one who determines whether to bring charges.

"This is Gen. Mattis exercising the lawful power of a convening authority in a way he considers best for the Marine Corps and the nation," said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps attorney and now a military law professor at Georgetown University. "Some may disagree. Some may cheer. But he's only fulfilling his role in the military justice system in the way he considers appropriate."

- Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.