Baghdad Numb to Reports of Massacre

At the time of the killings in Haditha, U.S. Marines were waging a 17-day air and ground offensive in Anbar province that tribal leaders and hospital officials say killed roughly 90 civilians. Scores of insurgents also were killed, the tribal leaders and hospital officials said.

U.S. military officials at the time acknowledged two U.S. airstrikes on buildings where civilians were later found but have denied Iraqi accounts of high death tolls in Anbar province, calling them insurgent propaganda. Iraqis and Americans agree that insurgents have made a practice of taking shelter in neighborhoods.

Officials briefed on the U.S. military investigations into Haditha, however, say all those killed appeared to have been noncombatants. Investigators apparently have rejected two early versions of events from Marines: first, that the victims were either civilians killed by the roadside bomb or insurgents killed in fighting, and second, that the residents were killed inadvertently in a running gun battle with insurgents.

Baghdad residents interviewed Sunday said they cared now about only one aspect of the case: the trial.

"I am expecting a fair trial for those soldiers. Then we should send the people who kept the terrorists in their area to court,'' said Kadhum Jawad, a money changer in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.

"Nothing will happen in their trial," said Omar Hamdoon, a Sunni Arab owner of a clothing shop for women.

"Even if they investigate, and even if five American troops are proved guilty, would they sentence them to death?" said Jayih, the pharmacist. "Unless they do that, the investigation won't interest Iraqis."

Special correspondents Salih Saif Aldin and Bassam Sebti contributed to this report.