LONDON: A BBC investigation into the killing of an Iraq family by US forces in 2005 has raised questions over war crimes accountability, after it emerged that two Marines were never brought to trial over the deaths.
Safa Younes’ entire family — five siblings, mother, father and aunt — were killed by US Marines on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, where 24 civilians were slaughtered in an event later termed the Haditha Massacre.
The Marines entered three homes in the town that day, killing almost every civilian they encountered, including four women and six children. A driver and four students in a vehicle were also shot dead on their way to college.
The Haditha Massacre led to the longest war crimes investigation of the Iraq War but resulted in no convictions.
However, a new investigation by BBC Eye has revealed evidence that implicates two Marines in the mass killings and raises questions about the integrity of the US investigation.
On the day of the attack, a roadside bomb detonated near the town, killing a Marine and injuring two others. The Marines claimed they then responded to gunfire from Haditha.
Younes, who was 13 at the time, told the BBC: “We hadn’t been accused of anything. We didn’t even have any weapons in the house … I was the only survivor out of my entire family.”
The US initially charged four Marines with murder, but they each gave conflicting accounts. Over time, US prosecutors dropped charges against three of the four, and they were granted immunity from legal action.
The Marine left to face trial in 2012 was squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who pleaded guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty, a light charge unrelated to direct involvement in the killings.
A pre-trial hearing was released by the BBC, bringing new information to the public light. In it, a junior member of the squad that entered Haditha admits to killing Younes’ father as he opened the door to the family home.
Lance Corp. Humberto Mendoza was never charged with the killing despite admitting to seeing Younes’ father raise his hands upon opening the door.
Forensic expert Michael Maloney was sent to the town in 2006 by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to probe the killings.
He highlighted significant discrepancies in Mendoza’s account, which had changed throughout the legal process.
Using the new information revealed by the BBC, Maloney concluded: “Mendoza confessed to everything except for pulling the trigger.”
Younes provided evidence to prosecutors in 2006 but it was never shown in court. After the front door of the home was breached, the US Marine squad moved through the building.
The Marine who opened the bedroom door threw a grenade inside that failed to detonate, Younes said. He then entered the room and shot those inside, with Younes the only survivor. Mendoza is the sole Marine who has said he opened the bedroom door.
Lance Corp. Stephen Tatum claimed he had followed Wuterich into the family bedroom, but said poor visibility had obscured vision of the women and children in the room, who were killed by the Marines.
The BBC uncovered statements that show Tatum admitting to different events, however. “I saw that children were in the room kneeling down. I don’t remember the exact number but only that it was a lot. I am trained to shoot two shots to the chest and two shots to the head and I followed my training,” he told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in 2006.
Tatum “was able to positively identify the people in the room as women and children before shooting them,” the service was told a month later.
A week after that, he said: “This is where I saw the kid I shot. Knowing it was a kid, I still shot him.”
Defense lawyers for Tatum said his later statements were obtained under duress, and charges against him were dropped in March 2008.
Maloney said the totality of evidence pointed to Mendoza and Tatum being the two Marines who killed Younes’ family.
The forensic expert believes that the former entered the bedroom first, while the latter followed and “fired across the head of the bed.”
Mendoza did not respond to a request for comment from the BBC. He previously admitted to shooting Younes’ father but said he was following orders.
Tatum, through his lawyer, told the BBC that he wants to put the massacre behind him.
The US Marine Corps said it would not reopen the investigation unless a wealth of new, unexamined and admissible evidence was introduced.
Younes, now 33, still lives in the town and has three children. She said Mendoza “should have been imprisoned from the moment the incident happened; it should have been impossible for him to see the light of day.
“It’s as if it happened last year. I still think about it. I want those who did this to be held accountable and to be punished by the law. It’s been almost 20 years without them being tried. That’s the real crime.”
