Updated at 7:53 a.m., Sunday, April 15, 2007
Marines may have killed Afghan civilians, report says
Bloomberg News Service
A preliminary U.S. military investigation found that more than40 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded by Marines after a
suicide bombing in a village near Jalalabad last month, the
Washington Post reported, citing Major-General Frank H.
Kearney, who ordered the probe.
The investigation, which could lead to courts-martial of those involved, indicated Marines shot at perceived threats as they traveled miles from the site of the March 4 attack, killing at least 10 people and wounding 33, including children and elderly villagers, the Post reported, citing Kearney.
The preliminary findings of the investigation back up an official Afghan human rights inquiry and contradict initial reports that the civilians were killed by small-arms fire from an enemy trying to ambush the Marines, the Post said.
The Marines were in a convoy stopped near the Pakistan border when a suicide bomber drove at the vehicles and detonated a bomb, the newspaper reported.
