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Haditha Massacre Coverup Crumbles

Congressman John Murtha, Pennsylvannia Democrat and former Marine, says the Marines are finally investigating a massacre of some two dozen Iraqis in the city of Haditha. The killings took place November 21, 2005, but were initially reported as deaths from an insurgent's roadsize bomb. National Public Radio says the Marines started investigating in March following a story in Time magazine which had interviewed Haditha residents who described soldiers who had gone on a rampage after one of them had been killed by a car bomb.

At a press conference on May 18 Murtha said, "It's much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no fire fight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that's what the report is going to tell. "

According to NPR, Marines became enraged after one of them was killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). They stopped a car coming into the city and killed everyone inside. They then went into homes and killed those whom they found, around two dozen in all. The Marines are reportedly also investigating the initial reports of the deaths believing them to be deliberate cover-ups.

Murtha at his press conference continued to call for redeployment from Iraq. He said that in the six months from his last major statement on Iraq attacks on US forces have gone up from 550 incidents a week to 900 a week. He noted that electricity in Baghdad is on for an average of just 2.9 hours a day.

" Secretary Rumsfeld says progress in Iraq is evidenced by how many satellite dishes he sees on a rooftop. Now, what's wrong with that? They only have 2.9 hours of electricity. So if they have satellite dishes, they can't watch them 21 hours a day. ", Murtha said.