US Marine being probed over song on killing Iraqis [video report]

WASHINGTON - The US Marine Corps is investigating whether a Marine did anything wrong by singing an obscenity laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow US troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis.

A four-minute video of the performance, posted on the internet, showed Cpl. Joshua Belile, who returned home from Iraq in March, singing lyrics about encountering an Iraqi woman and her family. [Watch video]

He sings, "I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally." In the background, laughing, clapping and cheers can be heard.

Marine Corps officials said today their preliminary inquiry will focus on whether Belile broke military law or rules in writing and singing a song with offensive lyrics to an audience of other troops. Another concern, they said, was maintaining "good order and discipline" in the ranks.

The Marines have called the song "clearly inappropriate".

"I cannot say if there is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or the law of armed conflict. Lawyers have looked at it and they're kind of scratching their heads, which is why we're doing this preliminary inquiry," said Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a US Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon.

Maj. Shawn Haney, spokeswoman at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, said the preliminary inquiry is expected to last a couple of days. The military will then decide whether to move to a more formal investigation that potentially could lead to discipline.

Belile, who is stationed at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina and is a member of a band called the Sweater Kittenz, told a local newspaper the song was "supposed to be funny," with lyrics based on lines from the 2004 satirical movie Team America: World Police.

"It's a song that I made up and it was nothing more than something supposed to be funny, based off a catchy line of a movie," Belile told the Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina. "I apologise for any feelings that may have been hurt in the Muslim community. This song was written in good humour and not aimed at any party, foreign or domestic."

The video's existence comes to light at a time when the military is investigating the role of Marines in the deaths of 24 civilians in the city of Haditha in November.

"We welcome Corporal Belile's apology and will leave it to military authorities to determine whether any disciplinary action is warranted," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil rights group that had called for an investigation.

Video of Belile's performance in Iraq was posted on the website www.youtube.com, but was recently removed. CAIR has posted the video on its website, www.cair-net.org.

- REUTERS