Report details friendly fire casualties in Iraq

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, March 28, 2004

As many as 10 Marines may have been killed by friendly fire in the midst of the deadliest battle of the Iraq war when a Marine air controller mistakenly cleared Air Force A-10 jets to shoot on U.S. positions, according to a long-awaited military investigation.

The report, portions of which were obtained by the Los Angeles Times, paints a chaotic picture of the March 23, 2003, battle in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, as Marines fought to seize two bridges crucial to the American advance on Baghdad.

When Marine units around the city lost communication, commanders became confused about the location of U.S. troops. Two tank-busting jets were given permission by a controller to attack what turned out to be a forward Marine company. The documents describe 15 minutes of air attacks on the friendly forces using 30mm Gatling guns, Maverick missiles and bombs, ending in the destruction of two amphibious assault vehicles that were trying to evacuate wounded Marines.

The full report, running hundreds of pages, is scheduled to be released this week.

In contrast to the descriptions of precision bombing that have come to define the U.S. military, Marine and Air Force investigators documented a chain of faulty battlefield assumptions by the Marine forward air controller and other commanders who did not know where their troops were arrayed on the battlefield and had scant means of communicating during the fight.

In all, 18 Marines were killed and 17 were wounded during three hours of intense fighting with Iraqi army troops and militiamen.

"The A-10s targeted what turned out to be" U.S. Marines, the report states, "making multiple passes against them.

"Eventually, the A-10s were told to cease fire, which they did."

Of the 18 killed, the investigation found that eight had died "solely" as the result of enemy fire.

But it added, "the intensity of the enemy fire, combined with friendly fire, makes it impossible to conclusively determine the exact sequence and source of fires that killed the other 10 Marines." The Marines who might have been killed by friendly fire were not identified in the documents obtained by the Times. Of the 17 Marines wounded in the battle, four were hit by a combination of enemy and friendly fire, the investigation found.