Marines suspected in another killing

HAMDANIA, Iraq — Before people talked about how Hashim Ibrahim Awad was killed, his friends shared tales about how the Americans wanted him to be an informant.

Marines had approached him several times, Awad's friends say he told them, asking him to help them find who was planting explosives in this small village outside Baghdad. Awad, in his 50s with a lame leg and bad eyesight, refused. His family considered the job shameful.

Awad's family on Friday gave their version of what happened to him in the early-morning hours of April 26. They said Marines dragged Awad from his home, killed him and then planted an AK-47 assault rifle and a shovel next to him to make him look like a terrorist.

The family members said American investigators since have harassed them, questioning their allegations in long all night sessions. They said they once were taken for questioning to nearby Abu Ghraib prison, the scene of previous allegations of American abuse.

There was no way to confirm the accounts. U.S. officials have declined to provide details of the allegations that led them to announce May 25 that they were investigating the death of an Iraqi civilian and that "several service members from 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment ... were removed from operations and have returned to the United States."

But the probe of the case has turned up enough evidence that eight Marines have been jailed and four others have been told not to leave their base at Camp Pendleton in California.

Lt. Lawton King, a Camp Pendleton spokesman, said Friday that commanders ordered the eight into "pretrial confinement" after an "evaluation of the ongoing investigation."

Lawton said the eight jailed Marines have been "afforded the opportunity of a magistrate's hearing," but he declined to say whether any of the Marines had appeared before a judge. He said no charges have been presented.

Hamdania is on the far western edge of Baghdad province. Insurgents are active in the area, and kidnappings and other violence are common. The town is obscure enough that U.S. officials incorrectly rendered its name as "Hamandiyah" in their official announcement.

Awad's family produced a sheet of paper that appeared to be part of a report on the incident. A Marine sergeant had written that his unit killed the man because he was "digging on the side of the road from our ambush site. I made the call and engaged. He was pronounced dead at the scene with only a shovel and AK-47."

Awad's family members offer a radically different version.

A cousin, Farhan Ahmed Hussein, said Americans pounded forcefully on his door in the early-morning hours of April 26 and asked if he had weapons. An AK-47, he told them. They took it and a shovel resting in front of his house, thanked him in Arabic and left, Hussein said.

He said he didn't think much of it. "I told myself first thing in the morning, I will stop the first patrol I see and ask them for my AK-47 and shovel back," he said.

Awad's brother, Awad Ibrahim Awad, says the Marines knocked on his door at 2 a.m., but that he decided not to get out of bed. They left.

Surprised, he said he looked outside — the area is illuminated with generator-powered lights — and saw the Marines walking behind his brother's house toward the home of a neighbor.

"The soldiers asked my mom if there were any men in our house. When she told them no, they left without searching the house," said the neighbor, who asked to be identified only as Mohammed.

Awad Ibrahim Awad said the Marines then knocked at Hashim Awad's door. When he came to the door, two Marines grabbed each of his hands and pulled him out of the house. The Marines took Hashim Awad and left without searching inside, Awad Ibrahim Awad said.

"They looked like people who found what they were looking for," Awad Ibrahim Awad said. "I told my wife, 'They took my brother, but I think he will be fine.' And I told myself: 'What's the worse they do? Investigate him for a few days and then release him because he is innocent.' Thirty minutes later, I heard gunshots."

The next day, as Awad Ibrahim Awad was working at a nearby gas station, Iraqi police pulled in and asked him to identify the body of a neighbor who'd been killed by the Americans. He stared at the body, which had an AK-47 and shovel next to it, but didn't recognize his brother.

"I saw a swollen face, and signs that he had been beaten. And it was clear a bullet had been shot into the mouth and broke part of his bottom teeth," he said. "I told the police officers, 'I know this man,' but I cannot recognize him. He was beaten to the point that I couldn't recognize his face."

Awad Ibrahim said it never occurred to him that the body might be his brother's. "He didn't have an AK-47 or shovel when the Americans took him," he said. "And besides, the Americans took him. How can he be dead and in police hands now?"

But something nagged at him, so he went to the hospital and looked at the body again. He recognized his brother by his leg, damaged in a farming accident 15 years ago.

Local tribal leaders said the Americans reported that they'd caught the man digging a hole and planting an explosive device, so they killed him. Police took the body to the hospital.

Tribal leaders told Marine officers about the death during a regularly scheduled community outreach meeting May 1. U.S. officials soon opened an investigation.

American forces have questioned the family repeatedly, relatives said, sometimes in the middle of the night. "We believe the Americans are trying to terrorize us so we won't talk," said Hussein, Hashim Awad's cousin.