Marines to investigate Afghanistan shooting
The Marine Corps will convene a special court of inquiry to look into a March 4 shooting in Afghanistan in which its troops allegedly killed as many as 19 civilians, the Marines announced Thursday.
The inquiry, which is not a criminal proceeding, was ordered by Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis and will be held at the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
At least three officers will review and evaluate evidence and send a recommendation to Mattis, commanding general of Marine Forces Central Command, on how the case should proceed.
The court of inquiry, to comprise senior officers with combat experience, is expected to take two weeks. No date has been set.
The shooting occurred in a region near the Afghan-Pakistani border where U.S. troops have been trying to win tribal support in the fight against resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda forces.
The troops, with the Marine Special Operations Unit, had been in the country only a few weeks. The incident began when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-filled van into the Marines’ convoy. After the attack, the convoy raced away, firing at pedestrians and vehicles along a 10-mile stretch of the road, the main highway between Kabul, the capital, and Jalalabad. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission found the troops acted illegally.
After the shooting, the Army ordered all 120 members of the Marine Special Operations Unit to return to the U.S., which set off a rift between the two military branches. The Marine Corps believed the Army had prejudged the troops as guilty without examining the evidence.
The announcement about the court of inquiry was made here and at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, headquarters for the U.S. Central Command.
After the court of inquiry, Mattis will have several options: filing criminal charges, ordering an administrative proceeding, or dropping the matter.
Mattis, who led troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been in charge of deciding cases of alleged abuse by Marines in Iraq. He was recently promoted to general, but has not assumed that rank yet.
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