Haditha officials who wanted killings investigated were accused of spreading propaganda by the US

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http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/May/focusoniraq_May71.xml§ion=focusoniraq&col=

CAMP PENDLETON, California - The town council in Haditha, Iraq, complained to Marine officers about the killings of 24 civilians, but US military officials rejected a call to investigate, a Marine intelligence captain testified in the biggest US criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war.

Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore testified Friday that council members met with battalion commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and company commander Capt. Lucas McConnell from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines on Nov. 27, 2005, eight days after a Marine squad killed 24 Iraqis including women and children in their homes after a deadly roadside bomb attack.

Dinsmore said the council had circulated a flier demanding an investigation into the deaths and outlining allegations that Marines deliberately targeted civilians, but he dismissed the flier as propaganda.

My assessment was the city council was being used as a tool of insurgent propaganda,’ Dinsmore said by telephone from Iraq. We would see allegations like that a couple of times a week.’

Dinsmore said civilian deaths were an inevitable consequence of fighting an insurgency.