Report: Expect charges in MarSOC case - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Report: Expect charges in MarSOC case

The Marine Corps is expecting criminal charges against at least five Marines from a special operations company who allegedly killed several civilians in Afghanistan last month after a suicide bomb attack on their convoy, The New York Times reported Friday.

Marine and civilian lawyers involved in the case have been told to expect charges against five to seven Marines involved in the shootings, possibly including one officer, the Times quoted an unnamed Marine official as saying.

The official added that a formal inquiry by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is continuing and could result in fewer or no Marines being charged. The official declined to provide the names or ranks of those likely to be charged, the Times reported.

The company commander, the senior enlisted leader and six members of the company were recalled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., earlier in April, said Maj. Cliff Gilmore, a Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command spokesman. The company, part of 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, was ordered out of Afghanistan after the incident but remains deployed in the region.

Gilmore said he didn’t know when the Navy’s probe of the March 4 incident would be completed. No charges have been filed, and Gilmore didn’t release the names of the Marines brought back Lejeune.

“What I expect is a very detailed and thorough investigation,” Gilmore said.

The shooting left 12 people dead, including a 1-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and three women, according to a report by Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission. The report said 35 people were wounded.

The report said the Marines fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, motorists and public transportation on a 10-mile section of road in Nangarhar province after a minivan rigged with explosives rammed their convoy.

Army Maj. Gen. Frank Kearney, head of U.S. Special Operations Command-Central Command, opened an investigation into the incident after ordering the company of 120 Marines to leave Afghanistan.

Gilmore said the company is still deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and has a new company commander and senior enlisted Marine. The unit left Lejeune in January for a six-month deployment aboard the Bataan Expeditionary Strike Group.

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Readiness of ousted specs ops unit questioned