Report: US marine kills wounded Iraqi
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-16 08:58

A U.S. Marine shot and killed a wounded prisoner in a Fallujah mosque, according to a television pool report broadcast Monday. A Marine spokesman said the shooting was being investigated.

Pool pictures taken by NBC correspondent Kevin Sites embedded with the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, were recorded Saturday as the Marines returned to an unidentified Fallujah mosque.

The video, according to a version aired by CNN, showed a Marine raising his rifle toward the prisoners but neither NBC nor CNN showed the shooting itself. The video was blacked out but the report of the rifle could be heard.

In this image taken from pool video provided to the Associated Press by NBC News, a U.S. marine is seen, left, raising his rifle in the direction of Iraqi prisoners lying on the floor of a mosque in Fallujah, Iraq Saturday Nov. 13, 2004.[AP]

According to the Sites report of events that led up to the shooting, the Marines had stormed the mosque a day earlier — Friday — after a firefight with insurgents who had taken up a position inside. Ten men in the mosque were killed and five were wounded. The wounded were left behind as the Marines moved on.

The videotape shows some of the Marines approaching the mosque a day later — Saturday. Gunfire can be heard from inside. At the mosque entrance, Marines who were already inside emerge from the building and are asked by the approaching Marines if there were insurgents inside, if the Marines had shot any of them and if the enemy fighters were armed?

A video grab by television pool shot by U.S. Network NBC shows a wounded insurgent inside a mosque in Falluja, November 13, 2004. A television pool report by U.S. network NBC said on Monday that a U.S. Marine had shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Falluja. (note: the man was not the  wounded insurgent allegedly shot dead by a U.S. Marine). [Reuters]

Sites reported that the Marine who was questioned shrugged his shoulders.

Sites account said four of the wounded men hurt in the attack the day before had been shot again by the Marines who returned Saturday.

The videotape showed two of the wounded propped against the wall and Sites said they were bleeding to death. According to NBC's report, a third wounded man appeared already dead, a fourth was severely wounded but breathing and the fifth was covered by a blanket but did not appear to have been shot again on Saturday.

On the video, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men against the wall in the mosque was only pretending to be dead.

The video then briefly shows a Marine raising his weapon toward one of the inert prisoners.

The video is then blacked out, but the report of the gunfire can be heard and Sites said in a written report that a Marine said "Now he is."

A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, Maj. Doug Powell, said the incident was "being investigated." He had no further details, other than to confirm the incident happened on Saturday and that the Marines involved were part of the 1st Marine Division.

NBC used pixelation to cover parts of the video that could lead to public identification of the Marines involved.

NBC's Robert Padavick told members of the U.S. television pool that NBC had agreed to a Pentagon request that the Marines identity be hidden because "they (the military authorities) are anticipating a criminal investigation, and as a result do not want to implicate anybody ahead of that."

In New York, NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the network did not broadcast the prisoner being shot because of the "graphic nature" of the video.

The full shooting video was provided to other members of the U.S. television pool.

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