CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) — Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich has admitted shooting a group of Iraqi men by a car in Haditha, but the circumstances under which he did so remain in dispute.
Wuterich, 27, of Meriden, Conn., claims the killings were justified because he had identified the men as military-age males close to where a roadside bomb had just detonated, killing a Humvee driver in his squad. He said they tried to run from the car, instead of obeying an order not to.