Results of a military investigation into how the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at the hands of U.S. Marines were reported won’t be released until a criminal probe of the killings is completed, officials say.
Two official investigations were launched into the Nov. 19 deaths in Hadithah, Iraq, which some witnesses have described as a rampage by Marines after the death of a comrade.
One ongoing probe seeks to determine whether crimes were committed in the incident, in which unarmed women and children were said to have been killed. The other, a so-called AR 15-6 investigation recently completed, examined how the incident was reported and handled by Marine officers afterward and whether details of the incident were covered up.
“Since information in the AR 15-6 investigation will impact the ongoing (criminal) investigation, any comment at this time would be inappropriate and could undermine the investigatory and possible legal process,” the Marine Corps said Friday in a statement in answer to requests for the findings by The Denver Post.
“As soon as the facts are known and decisions on future actions are made, we will make that information available to the public to the fullest extent allowable,” the statement said.
Lawyers for some Marines involved in the Hadithah incident have said the deaths were a justified response to what they perceived to be an attack, and were accurately reported to superiors.
