Haditha Massacre

On the morning of November 19, 2005 Haditha, an agricultural community north-west of Baghdad, was the site of a bloody US-led civilian massacre. The original military statement said, "A US marine and 15 civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha. Immediately following the bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small arms fire. Iraqi army soldiers and marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another."

But that's not the whole story. Journalist Taher Thabet filmed the aftermath of the roadside bomb and discovered the bodies of women and children still in their nightgowns, bullet holes and bloodstains on the walls and floors of houses. After this footage came to light, the official version of the story changed to say that 15 civilians had been accidentally shot by marines during a firefight with insurgents. (The number is now suspected to be up to 24 civilians.)

The Pentagon has said little about the Haditha deaths publicly, and in Iraq the incident has caused little controversy - US troops there are already routinely viewed as trigger happy and indifferent to Iraqi casualties.

But politicians in Washington who have been briefed on the military investigation say it backs the story that marines killed civilians in cold blood.

The chairman of the Senate armed services committee, John Warner, says it will hold hearings into the incident and how it was handled.

Media commentators have spoken of it as "Iraq's My Lai" - a reference to the 1968 massacre of 500 villagers in Vietnam. "

This story is quietly being swept under the rug. The US is supposedly still investigating what happened at Haditha and for the next 30 days will force troops to undergo ethical training and lessons in "core warrior values," whatever that means...