ITD

Marines

Sergeant Frank WuterichThe squad leader
Lance Corporal Justin SharrattThe squad’s gunner
Lance Corporal Stephen TatumA Falluja veteran from Oklahoma
Corporal Sanick Dela CruzOn his third deployment to Iraq
Corporal Hector SalinasWuterich’s right-hand man

Iraqis

An Iraqi Army soldierTravelling with the American convoy that day
Abdul RahmanA six-year-old survivor of the killings
SafaAn eleven-year-old survivor of the killings
Khalid JamalA survivor who was fourteen when his father and uncles were killed
NajlaaKhalid Jamal’s mother, who lost her husband in the massacre

The Prosecution

On November 19, 2005, a squad of U.S. Marines was driving down a road in Haditha, Iraq. It was the third year of the Iraq War, and the Marines had been deployed to Haditha to combat insurgent activity there.

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Suddenly, the fourth vehicle in the convoy hit an I.E.D. buried in the road. The driver, Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, was killed instantly. Two other Marines were injured.

In the hours after the explosion, Marines killed twenty-four Iraqi men, women, and children near the I.E.D. site, all of them civilians.

The massacre attracted international attention, and President George W. Bush promised a full investigation. The incident led to one of the most high-profile war-crimes prosecutions in American history.

And then it all fell apart.

Cleared by Fire What happened that day in Haditha?

Directed by David Kofahl and Sam WolsonReporting by In the DarkArt by Emiliano Ponzi

September 27, 2024

At the heart of the Haditha incident are competing accounts of what happened that day—radically different, irreconcilable stories. Marines recounted following their training to kill insurgents. The family members of the dead Iraqis, some of them eyewitnesses to the massacre, remembered Marines knowingly targeting unarmed civilians.

When the cases reached the military-justice system, the conflicting accounts collided. The interactive documentary below examines differing narratives about how the events unfolded. It draws from government investigation materials, interviews, and previously unreleased photographs to show the Haditha killings through the eyes of ten individuals—five American service members, one Iraqi Army soldier, and four Iraqi surviving family members.

Marines

Sergeant Frank WuterichThe squad leader
Lance Corporal Justin SharrattThe squad’s gunner
Lance Corporal Stephen TatumA Falluja veteran from Oklahoma
Corporal Sanick Dela CruzOn his third deployment to Iraq
Corporal Hector SalinasWuterich’s right-hand man

Iraqis

An Iraqi Army soldierTravelling with the American convoy that day
Abdul RahmanA six-year-old survivor of the killings
SafaAn eleven-year-old survivor of the killings
Khalid JamalA survivor who was fourteen when his father and uncles were killed
NajlaaKhalid Jamal’s mother, who lost her husband in the massacre

This project is a companion piece to the investigative podcast In the Dark, and is supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Interviews and statements reproduced below have been edited for length and clarity.

Chapter 1

Answers

Khalid Jamal

At the time of the killings, Khalid Jamal was fourteen years old. Today, he lives about two hours from Haditha with his wife and two children, and teaches in the computer-science department at the University of Al-Maarif. He has never stopped searching for answers about what happened to his father and uncles. His remembrances guide what follows.

Chapter 2

At the White Car

7:15 A.M.

On the morning of November 19th, a white car happened to be driving toward the American convoy on Al-Hay Al-Sinnai Road.

The Marines signalled for the driver of the white car to pull over. The I.E.D. went off, killing Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, and the convoy came to a halt. Five men got out of the white car, not far from the site of the blast.

Within moments, all five men were shot dead.

Later, the Marines and Iraqi Army soldiers offered divergent accounts about what happened.

Corporal Sanick Dela Cruz

When the Iraqi Army soldiers opened up on the military-aged males from the car, I supposed that they must be the enemy, and I fired at them as well. . . . I don’t remember seeing any of the military-aged males’ hands in the air.

March 18, 2006

Full statement

Corporal Sanick Dela Cruz

Two months later, Dela Cruz gave a revised statement.

As I was looking at the Iraqi males, I saw that some had their hands up and others did not have their hands up. . . . I saw Wuterich kneeling with his rifle shouldered, taking well-aimed shots. . . . When Wuterich was finished, he looked up at me with an expression like he was mad.

May 16, 2006

Full statement

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

I know as soon as I was walking towards them, they were getting out of the car. It was already not a permissive/hostile environment, so I and Corporal Salinas engaged the military-aged males outside my vehicle, about twenty-five metres from them.

February 21, 2006

Full statement

Note: Wuterich was promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant after the killings. Salinas, in an e-mail to The New Yorker in response to a request for comment on his involvement in the Haditha killings, wrote, “I would like to take this time to inform you that I formally dispute all the presented information and that they are false allegations.”

Iraqi Army Soldier (Name Redacted)

. . . Marines ordered the passengers out of their vehicle and they complied. The passengers then knelt on the ground in a linear order. . . . The Marines fired on them with their rifles in a sweeping motion, killing each of the five passengers. . . . The Marines were acting crazy as they were yelling and screaming.

March 15, 2006

Full summary

After the I.E.D. exploded, Hospitalman Brian Whitt, a medic who had been travelling with the convoy, tended to two injured Marines, who were then taken to a helicopter to be flown away for treatment. The bodies of the five Iraqi men remained on the side of the road.

Chapter 3

The First Time
We Saw Them

Khalid Jamal

Chapter 4

The First House

7:30-8:30 A.M.

According to some of the Marines, after the I.E.D. exploded, they started to take fire. Sergeant Wuterich and a group of his men headed in the direction they said the gunshots came from. As they approached the first house they’d enter that day, Wuterich told his squad members, “Shoot first, ask questions later.”

The Marines lined up outside the house and then kicked in the door. Corporal Hector Salinas says that he shot someone in the hallway. Private First Class Humberto Mendoza shot a man in the front room.

Farther back in the house, more family members were gathered in the living room.

Marines threw grenades into the room, severing the leg of Abdul Hameed, a seventy-six-year-old grandfather. Abdul Hameed’s son Jaheed was shot dead. Jaheed’s sister-in-law Asmaa and her son Abdullah were cowering in a corner and were killed. Two of Asmaa’s other children—Abdul Rahman, who was six years old, and Eman, who was eight—were injured.

Accounts of the killings in the living room differ widely, with one Marine having admitted to firing blindly into the room. Another claimed to have deliberately identified and targeted individuals.

Abdul Rahman, Surviving Family Member

. . . Abdul Hameed was a very old man and could not walk. . . . A Marine with a pistol started shooting . . . and then another Marine threw a grenade. . . . The grenade blew up Abdul Hameed and then the Marines started shooting at the rest of [the] family. . . . All the Marines had rifles, except the Marine who was firing a pistol.

June 8, 2006

Full summary

Note: This statement was redacted before it was released. We have attributed it to Abdul Rahman on the basis of our reporting. (The statement comes from a male survivor of the first house; Abdul Rahman was the only male survivor of that house.) The spelling of Abdul Hameed Hassan Ali’s name has been standardized.

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

After whoever threw the grenade said, “Clear by fire,” I waited for the grenade to go off, and then I stuck my 9-millimetre Beretta pistol around the corner of the door jamb and fired blindly into the room, firing from fatal front to domina[nt] corner . . . basically from right to left. I emptied a magazine into the room and then holstered the pistol.

March 19, 2006

Full statement

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Interviewer: What happened then?

Wuterich: We finished clearing the house. . . . The first man enters the room and engages the people in the room. . . . The first person engaging, to my best recollection, was Lance Corporal Tatum.

Interviewer: You didn’t fire any rounds in the house?

Wuterich: No, I did not.

October, 2006

Full interview

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

I heard an AK-47 racking behind the wall. . . . I heard Sergeant Wuterich fire two shots as [I] followed him in the room. The room was smoky and dimly lit. . . . I could see someone moving in the direction that Sergeant Wuterich was firing, so I also fired in the same direction, engaging that target.

March 19, 2006

Full statement

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

Two months later, Tatum gave a revised statement, which was summarized by investigators.

[Tatum] stated that he shot at people on only one side of the room and below waist level. . . . He positively identified women and children but shot them anyway, because “women and kids can hurt you, too.”

May 17, 2006

Full summary

Note: This statement was redacted before it was released. Tatum’s name has been added based on our reporting. (In news coverage of Tatum’s Article 32 hearing, Tatum is identified as the person who gave this statement. When Tatum later testified at Wuterich’s trial, Wuterich’s name was unredacted in the trial transcript. In an earlier unredacted statement to the N.C.I.S., Tatum implicated Wuterich as having shot in the living room.) Tatum has denied that he told the N.C.I.S. that he knowingly shot women and children.

After the shooting stopped, the Marines left. Abdul Rahman called out, but only his eight-year-old sister, Eman, responded. The two wounded children sat together in the room with the bodies of their mother, brother, uncle, and grandfather. Eventually, other Marines arrived, and U.S. military personnel flew Abdul Rahman and Eman to Baghdad for treatment.

Sometime that day, the front room of the house was badly damaged in a fire, and the body of the children’s father, Waleed, was burned beyond recognition.

Chapter 5

A Very Beautiful
Night

Khalid Jamal

Chapter 6

The Second
House

7:30-8:30 A.M.

The Marines made their way to another house nearby. Wuterich later claimed that they were being shot at from there. The eleven-year-old Safa Younis and eight of her family members were inside. Safa’s mother, Ayda, was in bed, recovering from an appendectomy.

The Marines approached the door, and Safa’s father, Younis, came to meet them. Mendoza shot him in the head. Tatum threw a grenade into an empty bathroom, and the Marines walked toward the back of the house.

The rest of the family members were gathered in a back bedroom. A Marine threw a grenade into the room and then shut the door. According to Safa, the family huddled in a corner, fearful of the grenade, but it didn’t explode.

Marines later entered the room and shot Safa’s mother, aunt, and all five of her siblings. Safa was the sole survivor.

In statements to investigators, two Marines offered conflicting accounts as to what happened in the back bedroom.

Safa, Surviving Family Member

When [my aunt] screamed, the soldier entered the room and started shooting non-stop. There was a space between the bed and the wall. My sister and I went down and hid in that space. When he heard a noise under the bed, he lowered his gun and started shooting. He knew that someone was hiding. . . .

March 22, 2022

Interview for In the Dark

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

I heard Sergeant Wuterich shoot at least three times in that room, so I quickly entered to assist him. . . . It was filled with dust and smoke. . . . I may have engaged five targets in this room. I did not positively identify anyone in this room. . . .

March 19, 2006

Full statement

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

Two months later, Tatum gave a revised statement, which was summarized by investigators.

[Tatum] heard [Wuterich] firing inside the room, so he immediately entered the room to help [Wuterich]. . . . “This is where I saw the kid I shot, knowing it was a kid, I still shot him.” [Tatum] described the child as standing on the bed wearing a white T-shirt and . . . having short hair.

May 17, 2006

Full summary

Note: This statement was redacted before it was released. Names in brackets have been added based on our reporting. (In news coverage of Tatum’s Article 32 hearing, Tatum was identified as the person who gave this statement. When Tatum later testified at Wuterich’s trial, Wuterich’s name was not redacted in the trial transcript. In an earlier statement to the N.C.I.S. we obtained that was not redacted, Tatum implicated Wuterich as having shot in the bedroom.)

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

There was no one when we first entered the house, but I heard people on the left side and we engaged the people in the room. . . . There were roughly five to eight people in the room. I did not positively identify them.

February 21, 2006

Full statement

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Later that year, Wuterich revised his statement in an interview with CBS.

Interviewer: Did you fire your weapon in the second house?

Wuterich: No, I did not. . . .

Interviewer: The second house was the Younis family. . . . They were all killed by your men. How do you explain that?

Wuterich: We did what—we reacted to how we were supposed to react, our training. . . .

Interviewer: In the second house . . . you saw what?

Wuterich: I don’t remember really seeing anyone except for that initial person that was in the house. You know, I still can’t remember . . .

October, 2006

Full interview transcript

After the house went quiet, Safa turned to her sister Noor, whom she had been crouched next to, but Noor didn’t respond. Safa got up and saw her mother and other siblings on the bed, unmoving. She heard her eight-year-old brother, Mohammed, scream. Safa saw that his hand had been shot, and he had lost fingers. She tried to stop her brother from bleeding by wrapping a towel around his wounds. Then she fainted.

When Safa came to, she walked out of her house, covered in blood. On her way out, she passed her father’s body, next to the kitchen door. She walked to her uncle Yassin’s house. She told her uncle, “The Americans killed everyone.”

Her brother, Mohammed, was later found dead on the bed, curled up next to the body of his mother.

Chapter 7

Just Like Any
Other Day

Khalid Jamal

Chapter 8

The Third and
Fourth Houses

9:30 A.M.

After the killings in the second house, a group of Marines made their way up to the roof of a house near the site of the I.E.D. explosion, creating a makeshift observation post. They saw a man running below and shot him from the roof. They spotted another man a few hundred metres away and shot him as well. Then, Wuterich claims, he saw a figure outside the third house, pacing suspiciously. He wanted to investigate.

Sharratt, Wuterich, and Salinas left the observation post and walked to the third house, where Khalid Jamal lived with his parents, Jamal and Najlaa.

Their house shared a courtyard with another house, where Khalid Jamal’s uncles Chassib, Marwan, and Qahtan lived. After Marines questioned those in the third house, they entered the fourth house.

Inside, they shot and killed the four brothers—Khalid Jamal’s father, Jamal, and his uncles Marwan, Chassib, and Qahtan.

In statements after the fact, the Marines said that the men they killed were insurgents who had tried to ambush them.

The Iraqis described something very different: the Marines methodically executing four unarmed brothers.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Lance Corporal Sharratt and I saw a man walking back and forth, west to east, over and over. So we exited the house and went to where he was and knocked on the gate.

February 21, 2006

Full statement

Corporal Hector Salinas

I left Tatum on overwatch and left to enter [the third house] from which small-arms fire seemed to be coming.

February 19, 2006

Full statement

Corporal Hector Salinas

The following month, Salinas gave a revised statement.

While in the overwatch position . . . Sergeant Wuterich stated that he saw a suspicious military-aged male popping his head over a wall to our northwest . . . and looking at them.

March 18, 2006

Full statement

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

The door was closed but unlocked. . . . There were at least four or five adult females in the building and at least four or five children also. There were no adult males. . . . Wuterich and Salinas called me over and I think it was Salinas who said the women were claiming the men were next door.

March 19, 2006

Full statement

Najlaa, Surviving Family Member

The first [American] who entered was sad and angry, red-faced, holding a gun and shaking. . . . He said that he wanted to execute us. . . . My husband . . . asked him why . . . and told him that these two houses are one family. So [the American] said, “Let’s go to the other house,” and then they saw Marwan, Qahtan, and Chassib; they were still in bed.

June 10, 2022

Interview with In the Dark

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

. . . I checked out House 4 with the males. So I was in the lead and walked on the interior side of the wall running the length of the buildings. I had my squad automatic weapon and 9-millimetre and Wuterich followed me with his M16. The front door . . . was open, and I entered the building and proceeded into the center meeting room. . . .

March 19, 2006

Full statement

Najlaa, Surviving Family Member

They pulled us all out. They separated the boys: my husband, his brothers, and my son, too. . . . Women separated from men. . . . My sister-in-law pulled back my son and said, “Why are you going?”. . . When they took us, they locked us in our house and took the boys. . . . I heard gunshots. I looked outside, saw them leaving without the men.

June 10, 2022

Interview with In the Dark

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

Then the Iraqi came out [from] behind the door jamb and was raising his AK-47. . . . I shot him once in the face. . . . After shooting him, I continued to shoot the other three. . . . Staff Sergeant Wuterich came in on my left and fired five to seven shots into the bodies on the ground to make sure that none were capable of grabbing a weapon. . . .

March 19, 2006

Full statement

Chapter 9

The Last Time
I Saw Them

Khalid Jamal

Chapter 10

The Evidence

In the weeks after the killings, Khalid Salman Raseef, a lawyer in Haditha who had lost fifteen family members on November 19th, asked a man to document evidence of the killings in the first and second houses. The resulting video was spliced together with others from the aftermath of the killings, yielding a twenty-two-minute montage of blood-spattered walls, scenes inside the hospital’s makeshift morgue, and bodies being prepared for burial.

In early 2006, a human-rights activist in Baghdad gave the video to Tim McGirk, a reporter for Time magazine. After McGirk began to ask questions about the civilian deaths in Haditha, the military initiated an investigation, conducted by Army Colonel Gregory Watt, who took statements from the Marines involved. Later, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service conducted a lengthier investigation, interviewing and re-interviewing Marines, and collecting what forensic evidence remained.

When we began reporting, we collected our own evidence. We travelled to Iraq to interview survivors, we sued the U.S. military to get documents and photos, we talked to forensics experts, and we extensively reëxamined investigation materials. All this information led us to several conclusions about what happened that day.

There is no evidence that any of the twenty-four civilians killed in Haditha on November 19, 2005, were firing weapons, as some Marines had claimed, or that any were connected to the I.E.D. explosion that killed a Marine.

The five men killed beside the
white car were travelling to a college
in Baghdad. No weapons were found
on them or inside the car.

The men were almost certainly not
running away when they were shot.
Their bodies were found next to the car.

Photos taken of the bodies at
the scene of the killings suggest
that one of the men may have been
kneeling when he was shot to death.

Three of the men’s wounds suggested
to a forensic pathologist working with the
N.C.I.S. that they were likely shot from
a distance of less than three feet away.

Photographs taken of the
bodies after the killings show
that Jaheed was shot in the
head while in an upright position.

Abdul Hameed had extensive
injuries. The grenade had blown
his left leg off.

Asmaa and her four-year-old son,
Abdullah, were cowering in a corner.
Asmaa had her arm over Abdullah.

Kevin Parmelee, an independent
forensics expert, concluded that,
based on the bullet trajectory through
Abdullah’s head, the shooter must
have been standing right next to
Asmaa, pointing his gun down at the
child’s head when he pulled the trigger.
“He was executed,” Parmelee said.

An N.C.I.S. forensic investigator,
analyzing bullet trajectories,
determined that there were at least
two shooters in the back bedroom
of the second house.

One Marine shot from near
the foot of the bed, according
to the investigator. The room was
small enough that the tip of the
Marine’s rifle likely reached over
the edge of the bed.

The other Marine shot
from near the doorway,
the investigator concluded.

Analysis of photos of the bodies
suggests that Zainab, age five,
was shot in the head while sitting
or standing on the bed.

Parmelee, the independent forensics
expert, concluded that the Marine who
shot Zainab likely would have known
that she was a child before he shot her.

After the shootings in the
bedroom of the fourth house,
the fourteen-year-old Khalid
Jamal, along with his mother
and aunt, entered the room
and discovered the bodies.

Photographs taken later by
Marines show where the bodies
lay after they had been moved
by grieving family members.

Investigators subsequently reconstructed
the sequence of events using photos,
bloodstain patterns, and bullet trajectories.

Qahtan and Chassib were likely
shot first, with a 9-millimetre pistol,
while standing near the doorway.

Jamal was also likely shot with a
9-millimetre pistol, while sitting or
crouching behind an open wardrobe
door in a corner of the room.

Sharratt was the only Marine
in the room armed with a pistol.

Marwan was shot while crouched
or sitting inside a closed wardrobe.
It is likely that Marwan entered the
wardrobe after Jamal was shot,
pulling closed the same door that
had previously concealed Jamal.

Investigators recovered a 5.56 round,
a type of bullet used in M16 rifles,
that was embedded in the wall behind
the wardrobe. They concluded that a
Marine likely shot through the closed
door, striking Marwan in the head.

Wuterich was the only Marine
in the room armed with an M16 rifle.

The locations and positions of
Jamal and Marwan—one crouched
in a corner and the other in a
closet—contradicted Sharratt’s
claim that the men were insurgents
moving toward their fallen comrades.

Rather, it appears that the
men were trying to take cover
when they were shot.

All four men were shot in the head.

Chapter 11

The Prosecution

On December 21, 2006, four Marines—Wuterich, Sharratt, Tatum, and Dela Cruz—were charged with murder. They each faced the possibility of a life sentence.

Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz

Charges

Unpremeditated murder

Murder of Ahmed Fanar Muslih
Murder of Wajdi Ayad Abdulhussein
Murder of Khalid Ayad Abdulhussein
Murder of Mohammed Battal Ahmed
Murder of Akram Hameed Fleh

False official statement

Made false statement with intent to deceive

On April 2, 2007, all charges against Dela Cruz were dismissed.

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

Charges

Unpremeditated murder

Murder of Chassib Ayed Ahmed
Murder of Qahtan Ayed Ahmed
Murder of Jamal Ayed Ahmed

On August 8, 2007, all charges against Sharratt were dismissed.

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

Initial charges

Unpremeditated murder

Murder of Noor Younis Salim
Murder of Zainab Younis Salim

Negligent homicide

Killing of Abdul Hameed Hassan Ali
Killing of Jaheed Abdul Hameed Hassan
Killing of Asmaa Salman Raseef
Killing of Abdullah Waleed Abdul Hameed

Assault

Assault of Eman Waleed Abdul Hameed and Abdul Rahman Waleed Abdul Hameed

Later, the head of Marine Corps Forces Central Command decided that Tatum would face a court-martial under a reduced set of charges.

Reduced charges

Involuntary manslaughter

Killing of Noor Younis Salim
Killing of Zainab Younis Salim

Aggravated assault

Assault of women and children in the second house

Reckless endangerment

Firing of weapon into a room occupied by unarmed people in the first house

On March 28, 2008, all charges against Tatum were dismissed before his case went to trial.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Initial charges

Unpremeditated murder

Murder of Ahmed Fanar Muslih
Murder of Wajdi Ayad Abdulhussein
Murder of Khalid Ayad Abdulhussein
Murder of Mohammed Battal Ahmed
Murder of Akram Hameed Fleh
Murder of Huda Yassin Ahmed
Murder of Ayda Yassin Ahmed
Murder of Mohammed Younis Salim
Murder of Ayesha Younis Salim
Murder of Sabaa Younis Salim
Murder of Zainab Younis Salim
Murder of Marwan Ayed Ahmed
Murder of six people in the first house: Waleed Abdul Hameed Hassan, Khomeisa Tuma Ali, Abdul Hameed Hassan Ali, Jaheed Abdul Hameed Hassan, Asmaa Salman Raseef, and Abdullah Waleed Abdul Hameed

Soliciting another to commit an offense

Solicited Sanick Dela Cruz to make a false statement
Solicited Sanick Dela Cruz to make a false statement

False official statement

Made false statement with intent to deceive

Later, Wuterich faced a court-martial under a reduced set of charges.

Reduced charges

Dereliction of duty

Failure to positively identify targets beside the white car
Ordering of Marines to “shoot first, ask questions later”
Ordering of Humberto Mendoza to shoot without positively identifying target

Voluntary manslaughter

Killing of Younis Salim Raseef
Killing of Huda Yassin Ahmed
Killing of Ayda Yassin Ahmed
Killing of Mohammed Younis Salim
Killing of Zainab Younis Salim
Killing of Ayesha Younis Salim
Killing of Sabaa Younis Salim
Killing of Noor Younis Salim
Killing of one or more people beside the white car

Aggravated assault

Shooting at occupants of the first house
Shooting at women and children in the second house

On January 23, 2012, Wuterich pleaded guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty. All other charges were dropped, and Wuterich was demoted in rank to private.

In the end, no one served a day in prison for the Haditha killings.

Four officers—Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, Captain Lucas McConnell, Captain Randy Stone, and First Lieutenant Andrew Grayson—were initially charged for failing to report and investigate the killings. Grayson was additionally charged with making a false official statement and obstructing justice.

All charges were dropped against Chessani, McConnell, and Stone. Grayson’s case went to court-martial, and he was acquitted of all charges.

Hector Salinas and Humberto Mendoza were never charged for their roles in the killings.

In 2007, when Dela Cruz’s and Sharratt’s cases were dropped, the head of Marine Corps Forces Central Command was Lieutenant General James Mattis, who later became President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. Mattis had the authority to dismiss the war-crimes cases brought against the Marines. In throwing out the charges against Sharratt, Mattis addressed a letter to the Marine, explaining his reasoning:

“. . . you willingly put yourself at great risk to protect innocent civilians. Where the enemy disregards any attempt to comply with ethical norms of warfare, we exercise discipline and restraint to protect the innocent caught on the battlefield. Our way is right, but it is also difficult.”

In closing, he wrote, “With the dismissal of these charges you may fairly conclude that you did your best to live up to the standards, followed by U.S. fighting men throughout our many wars, in the face of life or death decisions made by you in a matter of seconds in combat. And as you have always remained cloaked in the presumption of innocence, with this dismissal of charges, you remain in the eyes of the law—and in my eyes—innocent.”

Chapter 12

A Better Life

Khalid Jamal

Khalid Jamal, who lost his father and his uncles, was brought up by his mother, Najlaa, and by his aunt Ehab. When his first son was born, he called Ehab, who had prevented him from going inside the fourth house with the Marines. He thanked her for saving his life and enabling him to become a father.

Ever since the killings, Khalid Jamal has continued to wonder exactly what happened inside the fourth house. He wanted to know how his father and uncles had died, and in what order they were killed.

In June, 2024, almost twenty years after the massacre in Haditha, we shared our findings with Khalid Jamal, including photos of the bodies taken by the Marines that day, which he’d never seen before. We told him that, according to the N.C.I.S., Sharratt had killed three men, including his father, and that Wuterich had likely killed Marwan. We told him that it was likely that his uncles Qahtan and Chassib were shot first; then his father, Jamal; and finally his uncle Marwan.

This interactive documentary is a companion piece to Season 3 of In the Dark. Explore the other components, including a photographic record of the aftermath of the killings, the largest known database of possible war crimes committed by U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the nine-episode podcast about what happened that day in Haditha.

Explore the season

CREDITS

Directors David Kofahl, Sam Wolson Reporters Madeleine Baran, Samara Freemark, Parker Yesko, Rehman Tungekar, Natalie Jablonski Artist Emiliano Ponzi Concept & Story Development Sam Wolson Story Editor Julia Rothchild Art Director Nicholas Konrad Designers Nicholas Konrad, David Kofahl Supervising Design Director Aviva Michaelov Visual Editor Sam Wolson Sound Designer & Composer Jon Bernson Producer Julia Rothchild Executive Producers Monica Racic, Michael Luo, David Remnick Technical Supervisor David Kofahl Developers Sonny Cirasuolo (Nowhere.io), David Kofahl, Tim Klimowicz, Benjamin Guignabert (Nowhere.io) Additional Illustration Jon Han, Nicholas Konrad Reporting Adviser Rehman Tungekar Fact-Checking Linnea Feldman Emison, Rehman Tungekar Translation Housen Akoush, Aya al-Shakarchi, Ismail Ibrahim, Shireen Khaled Interpreting Aya Muthanna, Aya al-Shakarchi Additional Reporting and Investigating Namak Khoshnaw (BBC Arabic), Haider Ahmed Copy Editors Dan Stahl, Vivian Cheng, Whitney Holmes 3-D Modellers Sonny Cirasuolo, Sam Wolson, David Kofahl, Caren Ye Audio Mix Jon Bernson Additional Editing Willing Davidson, Catherine Winter FOIA Legal Representation Loevy & Loevy Legal Review Fabio Bertoni Special Thanks Maxx Berkowitz, Nathan Burstein, Lily Healey, Peter McCullough, David George, Penelope George, Saif Jasim, Jasper Lo, Jon Morris, Maysa Mourad, Christina Wolson

This piece was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

More:Iraq War Military Massacres Crimes

Daily Cartoon

Daily Cartoon: Friday, September 13th

“Oh, no, I don’t eat s’mores—I just correct people when they’re making them wrong.”

By Jimmy Craig

The Writer’s Voice

Bryan Washington Reads “Last Coffeehouse on Travis”

The author reads his story from the September 16, 2024, issue of the magazine.

Books

Briefly Noted

“Life and Death of the American Worker,” “Christopher Isherwood Inside Out,” “Mina’s Matchbox,” and “The Sons of El Rey.”

Daily Cartoon

Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, September 10th

“On second thought, the run-up to the election is thrilling enough.”

By Catherine Holmes

Cleared by Fire What happened that day in Haditha?

Answers

At the White Car

The First TimeWe Saw Them

The First House

A Very BeautifulNight

The SecondHouse

Just Like AnyOther Day

The Third andFourth Houses

The Last TimeI Saw Them

The Evidence

The Prosecution

Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz

Charges

Unpremeditated murder

False official statement

Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt

Charges

Unpremeditated murder

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum

Initial charges

Unpremeditated murder

Negligent homicide

Assault

Reduced charges

Involuntary manslaughter

Aggravated assault

Reckless endangerment

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich

Initial charges

Unpremeditated murder

Soliciting another to commit an offense

False official statement

Reduced charges

Dereliction of duty

Voluntary manslaughter

Aggravated assault

A Better Life

CREDITS

The First Time
We Saw Them

A Very Beautiful
Night

The Second
House

Just Like Any
Other Day

The Third and
Fourth Houses

The Last Time
I Saw Them