US troops to get ethics training after Haditha

BAGHDAD - US military commanders in Iraq today ordered ethics training for combat troops, after accusations that Marines murdered unarmed civilians in an Iraqi town last year.

The training over the next 30 days in "core warrior values" would highlight "the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield," a statement said.

US defence officials have said murder charges may be brought against Marines following an investigation into the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in November.

Many Iraqis believe unjustified killings by US troops are common, although few have been confirmed by investigations.

Echoing comments by President George W Bush this week, a senior US military spokesman said anyone guilty of violations against civilians would be punished.

"This tragic incident is no way representative of how coalition forces treat Iraqi civilians," Major General William Caldwell told a news briefing in the capital Baghdad.

He said that apart from Haditha, a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency, the US military was investigating three or four other cases, but did not specify.

Lieutenant General Peter W Chiarelli, commander of US combat troops in Iraq, said that of nearly 150,000 US-led troops in the country "99.9 per cent of them perform their jobs magnificently" every day.

"Unfortunately, there are a few individuals who sometimes choose the wrong path," he said in the statement.

The statement did not mention events in Haditha, which some commentators are comparing to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam that helped turn many Americans against that war.

- REUTERS