Haditha probe finds false reports, recommends retraining: report

The Washington Post reported that a three-month investigation by Army Major General Eldon Bargewell, one of two military probes into the November 19, 2005 incident in Haditha, is expected to be delivered to top military commanders by the end of the week, an army official said.

One of Bargewell's conclusions is that a staff sergeant made false statement to his superiors when he said that 15 civilians had been killed by the same roadside bomb that had killed a Marine, which touched off the incident.

The sergeant also lied when he said the other nine dead were insurgent fighters, the report will add.

The Bargewell report will also dwell on leadership failures, sounding echoes of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which the US military leadership was criticized for failing to react to wrongdoing by their subordinates.

However, the army official did not say whether the Bargewell investigation had determined that there was a coverup in the incident, as Democratic lawmaker and retired Marine John Murtha recently alleged.

The Bargewell report is also expected to recommend changes in how US troops are trained for duty in Iraq, the unidentified army official told the newspaper.

A senior Pentagon official also told The Washington Post that in anticipation of the Bargewell report, the promotion of Major General Stephen Johnson, who was top Marine in Iraq when the Haditha incident occurred, to lieutenant general has been put on hold.

A report by Time magazine in March cited witnesses who cast doubt on the official version that the civilians died in a bombing in Haditha.

Time magazine reported Sunday that lawmakers were told in briefings last week that some members of the Marine unit involved may soon face charges as serious as murder.

Murtha told CNN that some Iraqi families had been compensated.

US President George W. Bush, reacting to the reports for the first time, said Wednesday he was "troubled" by the allegations.

"Those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished," Bush said.

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