Witness: Marines killed unarmed civilians

Witness: Marines killed unarmed civilians
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 22, 2008 18:58:20 EST

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — American troops killed his unarmed father and nephew after a Marine Special Operations convoy was attacked by a suicide vehicle bomb in Afghanistan last March, Haji Liwani Qumandan said.

Testifying Tuesday via video teleconference with an interpreter at his side, the Afghan tribal elder said no one in his blue Toyota Prado had a weapon the morning the Marines allegedly killed more than a dozen Afghan civilians.

But under cross-examination during a court of inquiry looking into the attack on a Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command platoon in Nangarhar province, one defense attorney said Qumandan told investigators in early May that a fourth person was in his vehicle.

Qumandan, who said he was shot twice in the back, repeatedly denied Tuesday that he had a third passenger.

But defense lawyers for Maj. Fred Galvin, 38, and Capt. Vincent Noble, 29, said they have reason to believe at least some of the men in Qumandan’s vehicle were Taliban or Taliban sympathizers.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/marine_inquiry_update_080122/