Afghan report: Marine response violated law - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Afghan report: Marine response violated law

KABUL, Afghanistan —Marines who shot their way out of a suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan last month violated international humanitarian law by using excessive force that left 12 civilians dead, an Afghan human rights group said in a report.

Following the March 4 attack in Nangahar province, when an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into their convoy, the Marines shot indiscriminately at vehicles and pedestrians along a 10-mile stretch of road, Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission said in the report Saturday.

A U.S. military commander also has determined the Marines used excessive force, and has referred the case for possible criminal inquiry.

The group’s report was based on interviews with victims and their families, eyewitnesses, local community leaders, and local and regional hospitals, as well as police.

“At least 12 people were killed and another 35 injured by the shooting, including several women and children,” the 11-page report said.

“In failing to distinguish between civilians and legitimate military targets, the U.S. Marines Corps Special Forces employed indiscriminate force,” the report said.

“Their actions thus constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law standards,” it said.

U.S. military officials said after the incident the suicide attack was part of complex ambush that included militant gunmen shooting at Marines, which may have caused some of the civilian casualties.

The report, however, said that while there was some evidence at the site of the incident to back this claim, “it is far from conclusive and all witnesses and Afghan government officials interviewed uniformly denied that any attack beyond the initial [suicide car bombing] took place.”

The rights group alleges that U.S. troops, serving under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, returned to the area after the incident for an investigation and cleanup operation, which involved removing spent ammunition.

The group interviewed a member of Afghanistan’s National Police criminal investigations office, who said that his unit “made a full observation, 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) around the site of the incident, but ... ISAF forces had collected all shells, magazines, cartridges from the spot and we could not find any trace or sign of them.”

U.S. military officials were not immediately available to comment on the allegation.

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