A US marine, captured on film killing a wounded Iraqi at point blank range during November's assault on Fallujah, will not be formally charged due to lack of evidence, according to a report Wednesday on CBS News. A Marine spokesman, Captain Dan McSweeney, told AFP, however, he had been informed by the Navy Criminal Investigative Services, which is investigating the killing, that "the case is still very much open." The November 13 shooting occurred during a search of a mosque in a widely broadcast incident that sparked worldwide outrage and was described by the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross as a demonstration of "utter contempt for humanity."
| They weren't there, of course, they didn't see the mook playing dead, and they hadn't lost a friend the day before in a similar situation. |
In the incident, a trooper raised his rifle and shot point blank at an apparently unarmed, wounded Iraqi who was slumped against one of the mosque walls, in footage captured by an embedded camaraman working for the NBC network. Although the insurgents were found to be unarmed, investigators said the one the Marine believed he had seen moving could have been reaching for a weapon. The rifleman was withdrawn from combat pending the results of the investigation. CBS News said Wednesday it had learned that military investigators had concluded insufficient evidence existed to formally charge the marine. |