'Friendly fire' tragedy blamed on US marine

4.00pm

WASHINGTON - The worst US "friendly fire" incident of the Iraq war has been blamed on a Marine captain who called fighter jets to strike suspected Iraqi positions last March, unaware that dozens of Marines were fighting in the area, defence officials said on Sunday.

Ten Marines were killed and three wounded in the incident near the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya and an investigation report, to be released on Monday by the US Central Command, said the dead were so shot up by both Iraqis and A-10 Air Force jets that it was almost impossible to determine exactly how they died.

But the year-long probe by an 11-member US military team concluded that actions by the unidentified Marine captain, a ground-based air controller, directly resulted in the confused incident during the firefight on March 23, 2003.

It recommended that the officer receive some type of administrative discipline, but stipulated that "he didn't act with any negligence or reckless disregard," one of the defence officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

"It was a very ugly scene on the ground -- just a terrible thing in the heat of battle," said another defence official.

Marine Corps officials, who spent the weekend discussing the report with the families of Marines involved, declined to comment except to say that no action had been taken against the ground controller because the report had not yet been released.

Investigators found that the captain was in the city of Nassiriya at the time, could not see the action in a barren area near a canal and should have consulted his battalion commander, who would have known that US troops were in the strike area. But the report said he had been cleared by his immediate commander to call in air power.

Eighteen Marines were killed and 17 wounded in the area as Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion 2nd Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, sought to seize bridges and a canal near Nassiriya.

But the investigation concluded that apparently only 13 Marines were involved in the friendly fire strikes.

The air controller was from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion and was being used because Charlie Company had no air controller.

The investigation, headed by US Air Force Brig. Gen. William Hodgkins, found that two unnamed Air Force pilots from the 103rd Fighter Squadron of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard did not act with negligence and should not be held liable.

The A-10s, designed to fly low and use heavy cannon and rockets, are capable of destroying tanks and armoured vehicles.

The incident occurred on one of the most tragic days of the major-combat phase of the Iraq war for US-led forces.

In a news conference on the day of the incident, General John Abizaid, current head of the Central Command, said US Marines "defeated an enemy attack" in Nassiriya staged by a combination of Iraqi troops and irregular forces "in the sharpest engagement of the war thus far."

That initial public account did not mention the role of the A-10s, but days later Central Command announced that it was investigating whether the Marines were killed by friendly fire.

On the same day, in another friendly fire incident, a US Patriot missile battery shot down a British RAF GR4 Tornado close to the Kuwaiti border.

Also, a US Army 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company convoy carrying US soldiers including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, was ambushed by Iraqis after making a wrong turn. Several were killed and others captured and later rescued, including Lynch.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq