Word: patrolling
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...knows how long it will be before the world knows precisely what happened along Haditha's Hay al-Sinnai Road on the morning of Nov. 19, when 24 Iraqis, almost all of them unarmed, died during a five-hour encounter with a Marine Corps patrol. The incident, first reported by TIME in March, has sparked two major military investigations--one into the possibility that the Marines deliberately murdered unarmed Iraqis and another into a possible cover-up that followed. It has flung open the door to reports, some real, others already discredited, of other civilians being targeted in battle...
...other units were called to duty elsewhere, and Kilo was left to pacify the city on its own. During its daily weapons sweeps and vehicle checks, the unit found dozens of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) rigged to blow up all over town. The insurgents grew bolder: Marines on patrol would go around a corner and then come back an hour later and find two IEDs in a trash can. Read told TIME that Kilo was well led in Fallujah and Haditha. But he says Marine squads sometimes went on patrol without an officer because there were not enough officers...
What is impossible to know is whether the same lengthy experience that made the Marines more attuned to the challenges of fighting in Iraq also made them more prone to snap if provoked. As TIME reported in March, a 13-man Kilo unit was on patrol in a residential part of Haditha on Nov. 19 when its convoy of four humvees was attacked by an IED. The explosion killed Miguel Terrazas, 20, a beloved member of the unit, who was driving the fourth humvee. Terrazas had a record of being cool under fire. His brother Martin reports that Terrazas once...
...that November morning, proving that the Marines deliberately killed civilians will be a challenge. TIME reported last week that in addition to a videotape made by an enterprising journalism student in the neighborhood the day after the shootings, investigators have found real-time photographs taken by a Marine on patrol the day of the incident. There may also be surveillance tape taken by a military drone that was operating in the area. But prosecuting a criminal case in a court-martial won't be simple. More than six months have passed since the shootings, a lapse of time that defense...
With the Haditha revelations threatening to fuel antipathy toward U.S. troops, military officials have fanned out across Iraq to rerun all the old drills about rules of engagement for Marine Corps and Army units. Marine Corps rules of engagement require personnel on patrol to follow a four-step procedure to distinguish friend from foe. It's an easy mnemonic: Shout. Show. Shove. Shoot. Marines are trained to stop a suspicious Iraqi at a safe distance of about 400 meters with a shout or a gesture. If that does not work, they should make a show of force with a rifle...