Some senior U.S. marine officers failed to seriously probe into the alleged killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by marines last November, a senior U.S. general has concluded.

Quoting Pentagon sources, Saturday's edition of The New York Times reported that Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, concluded that those officers failed to follow up on inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the initial reports of the incident, which took place in the western Iraqi town of Haditha.

The general faulted the senior staff of the Second Marine Division, led at the time by Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, and the Second Regimental Combat Team, then headed by Col. Stephen W. Davis, and recommended disciplinary action for some officers, according to the report.

The Pentagon is considering Chiarelli's recommendations. If they are taken, the punishments could range from a relatively mild admonishment to a court martial that could potentially end some officers' military careers.

It is not clear whether Huck or Davis will be personally implicated, but if they were to be disciplined, they would be among the most senior American officers punished since the Iraq war started in early 2003.

The New York Times said a spate of recent cases of alleged U.S. war atrocities, including the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of three of her family members in Mahmoudiya, west of Baghdad, is putting the Pentagon under pressure to make an example of marine officers in the Haditha incident.

Source: Xinhua