Pentagon report said to find killing of Iraqi civilians deliberate

By Drew Brown
Knight Ridder Newspapers

• Multiple wounds mark bodies of Iraqis killed in disputed U.S. raid
• Iraqi police report details civilians' deaths at hands of U.S. troops

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon report on an incident in Haditha, Iraq, where U.S. Marines shot and killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians last November will show that those killings were deliberate and worse than initially reported, a Pennsylvania congressman said Wednesday.

"There was no firefight. There was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed those innocent people," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said during a news conference on Iraq. "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. That is what the report is going to tell."