New Evidence Emerges in Haditha Family Killings

Published: 17 November 2025 Monday. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

Two US Marines have been implicated in the killing of an Iraqi family during a notorious Iraq War shooting in Haditha, according to a BBC Eye investigation, nearly 20 years after the incident. The investigation has uncovered evidence, including testimony and statements given in the aftermath, which raises serious questions about how the American military investigated the killings and how accountability has been applied.

Safa Younes, now 33, vividly recalls the day her family was murdered. “This is the room where my whole family was killed,” she says, pointing to the back bedroom of the house in Haditha where she grew up. Bullet holes pockmark the front door, and a colourful bedspread now covers the bed where her family was shot. Safa, who was 13 at the time, survived by pretending to be dead, hiding among her five siblings, her mother, and her aunt. Her father, who opened the front door, was also shot dead by the marines.

The killings, which occurred on 19 November 2005, became known as the Haditha massacre. Twenty-four Iraqi civilians, including four women and six children, were killed when US Marines stormed into three homes. They also shot a driver and four students who were traveling to college. The incident triggered the longest US war crimes investigation of the Iraq conflict, yet no one was convicted.

The marines involved stated they were responding to gunfire following a roadside bomb that killed one of their squad members and injured two others. Safa, however, insists that her family had no involvement. “We hadn’t been accused of anything. We didn’t even have any weapons in the house,” she told the BBC World Service.

Initially, four marines were charged with murder, but their conflicting accounts led military prosecutors to drop charges against three of them and grant them immunity. This left only squad leader Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich to face trial, which ultimately ended in a plea deal in 2012. Wuterich maintained he could not recall the events inside Safa’s house and pled guilty to negligent dereliction of duty, a charge unrelated to the actual killings. His military lawyer described the outcome as “tantamount to a slap on the wrist… like a speeding ticket.”

Newly examined evidence now implicates Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza, the squad’s most junior member at the time, who was never charged. In a previously unbroadcast pre-trial hearing, Mendoza admitted to shooting Safa’s father, who was unarmed, when he opened the front door. In official statements at the time, Mendoza claimed he did not enter the bedroom where Safa and her family were, but in a newly discovered recording, he states he walked approximately eight feet into the room, placing him in the position where forensic expert Michael Maloney had concluded the first shooter had stood. Maloney, who was sent to Haditha in 2006 to investigate, examined the crime scene and concluded that two marines had entered the room and killed the women and children. “If you were to ask me: ‘Is this a confession of sorts?’ What I’d say is: ‘Mendoza confessed to everything except for pulling the trigger,’” Maloney told the BBC.

Safa had given a video deposition to military prosecutors in 2006, describing how the marine who entered the bedroom threw a grenade, which failed to explode, and then returned to shoot her family. Despite this evidence, the prosecution focused on Wuterich as the primary shooter. The trial concluded without Maloney’s testimony, and the legal outcome has left survivors like Safa questioning the integrity of the justice process.

Safa lives in Haditha with three children of her own. She struggles to comprehend how no marines were punished for the deaths of her family. Watching the video of Mendoza, she said, “He should have been imprisoned from the moment the incident happened, it should have been impossible for him to see the light of day. It’s as if it happened last year. I still think about it.” She emphasised that her desire is for those responsible to be held accountable under the law, stating, “It’s been almost 20 years without them being tried. That’s the real crime.”

Military lawyers involved in Wuterich’s case have described the investigation as deeply flawed. Haytham Faraj, Wuterich’s military lawyer, said the prosecution “paid people to come in and lie, and the payment was immunity, and that’s how they misused the legal process.” Neal Puckett, the lead defense lawyer, echoed that the case was “botched” from the outset, leaving survivors without justice. Faraj concluded, “The trial of Haditha was never meant to give voice to the victims.”

The US Marine Corps emphasised its commitment to fair and open proceedings under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, stating that it would not reopen the investigation unless substantial new evidence, previously unexamined and legally admissible, is presented. The lead prosecutor in the case declined to comment on the new findings.

The Haditha massacre remains one of the most controversial incidents of the Iraq War, symbolising questions about military accountability and the treatment of civilian casualties. The new investigation sheds light on overlooked evidence that could implicate two marines in the killings, highlighting gaps in the military justice system that left survivors with no legal recourse for decades.

Safa’s testimony and the expert analysis provided by Maloney underline the human cost of the conflict and the enduring trauma for those who witnessed it. The massacre not only devastated her family but has left her community grappling with unresolved questions about responsibility and justice.

For two decades, Safa has lived with the consequences of that day, carrying the memory of her family’s deaths while raising her own children in the shadow of those events. “I want those who did this to be held accountable and to be punished by the law,” she said. The BBC Eye investigation highlights both the enduring impact of the massacre and the challenges of achieving accountability within the US military justice system, bringing new scrutiny to a case long thought closed.