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17-03-07, 08:48
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2035773,00.html
US officer defends Haditha shootings
Peter Walker
Friday March 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2006/12/22/Haditha256.jpg
Frank Wuterich, who has been charged with the murder of 18 Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Photograph: AP
A US marine charged with killing 18 Iraqi civilians near the town of Haditha, among them women and children, justified his actions by saying he was following military procedures and stands by his decisions.
Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who led a squad of marines near Haditha on November 19 2005, is among eight soldiers charged in connection with the deaths of a total of 24 Iraqi civilians.
In an interview with CBS television's 60 Minutes programme, to be broadcast on Sunday, Staff Sgt Wuterich, 26, said he was sorry for the civilian deaths but had not done anything wrong and would do exactly the same thing again under similar circumstances.
"There is nothing that I can possibly say to make up or make well the deaths of those women and children, and I am absolutely sorry it happened that day," he said.
"What I did that day, the decision that I made, I would make those decisions again today. Those are decisions that I made in a combat situation, and I believe I had to make those decisions."
In the interview, he admits shooting five unarmed Iraqi men in the back but says this was necessary as they were running from a car that had appeared on the scene after a marine had been killed by a roadside bomb, and that they did not follow instructions.
"Normally the Iraqis know the drill ... if something happens ... get down, hands up ... They started to take off, so I shot at them," he said.
Other marines have told investigators the Iraqis seemed to be following orders and were not fleeing.
But Staff Sgt Wuterich said he also thought at the time the men might been involved in detonating the bomb, saying: "Those are the things that went through my mind before I pulled the trigger. That was positive identification."
He also said that an attack he led on two houses in which a number of women and children died was justified under military procedures because the marines thought they had been fired on from one of the homes.
The marines threw a grenade into one of the rooms before charging in to shoot any survivors, something Staff Sgt Wuterich said was the standard way to clear a house.
"You can't hesitate to make a decision. Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men ... That's what we do. That's how our training goes."
He continued the assault because he saw an open back door and assumed the sniper had gone to the next house.
"My responsibility as a squad leader is to make sure that none of the rest of my guys died ... and at that point we were still on the assault, so no, I don't believe [I should have stopped the attack]," he said.
In the second house, a man, two women and four children were killed.
"Did we know that civilians were in there? No. It would have been one thing if we went in those rooms and looked at everyone and shot them," he said.
"We cleared these houses the way they were supposed to be cleared."
Staff Sgt Wuterich faces 13 counts of unpremeditated murder. Three other squad members were also charged with unpremeditated murder and four officers were charged with failing to properly investigate or report the killings.
The episode has come to be known as the conflict's My Lai, a reference to the notorious massacre of civilians in the Vietnam war.
US officer defends Haditha shootings
Peter Walker
Friday March 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2006/12/22/Haditha256.jpg
Frank Wuterich, who has been charged with the murder of 18 Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Photograph: AP
A US marine charged with killing 18 Iraqi civilians near the town of Haditha, among them women and children, justified his actions by saying he was following military procedures and stands by his decisions.
Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who led a squad of marines near Haditha on November 19 2005, is among eight soldiers charged in connection with the deaths of a total of 24 Iraqi civilians.
In an interview with CBS television's 60 Minutes programme, to be broadcast on Sunday, Staff Sgt Wuterich, 26, said he was sorry for the civilian deaths but had not done anything wrong and would do exactly the same thing again under similar circumstances.
"There is nothing that I can possibly say to make up or make well the deaths of those women and children, and I am absolutely sorry it happened that day," he said.
"What I did that day, the decision that I made, I would make those decisions again today. Those are decisions that I made in a combat situation, and I believe I had to make those decisions."
In the interview, he admits shooting five unarmed Iraqi men in the back but says this was necessary as they were running from a car that had appeared on the scene after a marine had been killed by a roadside bomb, and that they did not follow instructions.
"Normally the Iraqis know the drill ... if something happens ... get down, hands up ... They started to take off, so I shot at them," he said.
Other marines have told investigators the Iraqis seemed to be following orders and were not fleeing.
But Staff Sgt Wuterich said he also thought at the time the men might been involved in detonating the bomb, saying: "Those are the things that went through my mind before I pulled the trigger. That was positive identification."
He also said that an attack he led on two houses in which a number of women and children died was justified under military procedures because the marines thought they had been fired on from one of the homes.
The marines threw a grenade into one of the rooms before charging in to shoot any survivors, something Staff Sgt Wuterich said was the standard way to clear a house.
"You can't hesitate to make a decision. Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men ... That's what we do. That's how our training goes."
He continued the assault because he saw an open back door and assumed the sniper had gone to the next house.
"My responsibility as a squad leader is to make sure that none of the rest of my guys died ... and at that point we were still on the assault, so no, I don't believe [I should have stopped the attack]," he said.
In the second house, a man, two women and four children were killed.
"Did we know that civilians were in there? No. It would have been one thing if we went in those rooms and looked at everyone and shot them," he said.
"We cleared these houses the way they were supposed to be cleared."
Staff Sgt Wuterich faces 13 counts of unpremeditated murder. Three other squad members were also charged with unpremeditated murder and four officers were charged with failing to properly investigate or report the killings.
The episode has come to be known as the conflict's My Lai, a reference to the notorious massacre of civilians in the Vietnam war.