Marine Shooting In Fallujah: Update

The report is in on the highly publicized shooting of an unarmed wounded Iraqi during the battle for Fallujah last November.

Military investigators have decided there is not enough evidence to bring formal charges against Marine who killed an unarmed Iraqi while his unit searched a Fallujah mosque, CBS reported on Wednesday.

The Marines entered the mosque last fall during an offensive aimed at clearing insurgents from Fallujah. They were seeking the source of insurgent gunfire and found several men wrapped in blankets on the mosque floor.

After what he reported as movement, a Marine fired at one of the men on the floor, killing him.

“The insurgents, it turned out, were unarmed,” CBS reported. “But investigators say the Iraqi the Marine thought he saw moving could have been going for a weapon.”

“At the very least, Navy legal experts believe the situation is ambiguous enough that no prosecutor could get a conviction,” the network reported.

Any decision on punishment within the Uniform Code of Military Justice was to be made by Marine commanders, CBS said.

Good news.

hat tip – Wizbang

FILED UNDER: Iraq War, Military Affairs, , ,
Kate McMillan
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Kate McMillan is the proprietor of small dead animals, which has won numerous awards including Best Conservative Blog and Best Canadian Blog. She contributed nearly 300 pieces to OTB between November 2004 and June 2007. Follow her on Twitter @katewerk.

Comments

  1. ken says:

    Is this the one where the guy was captured and disarmed, then shot and wounded by one soldier, then moments later shot and killed (on camera) by another soldier? And you think that is ok? Wow. Sick.

  2. CW says:

    He who shoots last…usually dies. It’s a RVN lesson guys. Combat is tuff. You’re keyed, you’re pumped, you’re tired, you’re wired, and you react first if you want to live to see another sunrise. Those that ponder are often gene pool eliminations. Sometimes you are right, sometimes you arn’t. You do the best you can, for yourself and your brothers around you. For the PC REMFS here…go back to your latte, you cannot understand the world of a warrior.