AT first it appeared to be another Iraqi tragedy, a roadside bomb claiming the lives of a US Marine and 15 locals.
But the discovery of grisly video footage which shows that the innocent men, women and children - some as young as three - were shot dead has changed all that.
America was last night wrestling with the sickening possibility that its own revered marines "executed" them in revenge.
Witnesses claim that the marines went on the rampage, spraying two homes with bullets after their comrade was blown up in Ha- ditha, 125 miles north-west of Baghdad. "I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny," says one child on the tape, uncovered by Time magazine.
Replica Balenciaga HandbagsAnother young boy slumped on the floor next to a corpse sobs uncontrollably: "My father. My father."
The bodies of women and children in plastic bags are also shown on the floor of a morgue.
Originally, the US military said in a statement that the 15 civilians had died in the bomb blast last November.
But an investigation by reporters led to the statement being withdrawn.
A second statement said Gerald Genta Replica Watch they had been killed in the crossfire during a gun battle with insurgents. Now US military investigators have flown to Iraq to investigate the latest allegations.
But Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani, head of Iraqi human rights group Hammurabi, insisted: "These violations of human rights happen every day in Iraq."
The group says it was given the film by a local man. As the video was repeatedly shown on Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, one furious resident asked: "Is this the democracy Iyad Allawi (former Iraqi prime minister), Jalal Talabani (president) and George Bush are talking about?"
The tape comes a week after separate claims US soldiers shot dead a family of 11 in their home in Ishaqi.
The US army admitted it had launched an inquiry.
RAF doctor flight lieutenant Malcolm Kendall - Smith, 37, is to become the first British serviceman to be court martialled for refusing to go to Iraq. He faces five charges of refusing to obey orders to return to Iraq.
