Haditha Killers Urinated On The Dead Too

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2012 file photo, United States Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich arrives at a court room at Camp Pendleton with lead defense attorney Neal Puckett in Camp Pendeton, Calif. Opening arguments in Wuterich's will be Monday, Jan. 9, 2012 _ more than six years after his Marine squad in 2005 killed 24 Iraqis, including unarmed women and children in the town of Haditha. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File) — AP
Marine: Sgt. called for bloodshed in Haditha
Marine says sergeant ordered bloodshed in Haditha
Wuterich court-martial will proceed
Last Haditha defendant seeks to dismiss charges
Court: Marine can't sue lawmaker for defamation

CAMP PENDLETON — Sgt. Frank Wuterich and a couple Marines in his squad were gathered around the smoke pit at the Haditha dam in 2005, in Al Anbar province of Iraq where a violent insurgency was on the rise.
A Marine from another unit had been blasted outside their base by a roadside bomb. “If we ever get hit again, we should kill everyone in that vicinity,” Sgt. Frank Wuterich allegedly told his men, according to testimony Wednesday by one of his former squad mates, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who was a corporal at the time.
Whether or not Wuterich spoke those words, he had the chance to put them into action when their supply convoy was attacked by a roadside bomb. Dela Cruz and Wuterich were among the first to jump out of the trucks on Nov. 19, 2005.
When Dela Cruz exited his vehicle he saw a group of Iraqi men standing in front of a white car parked on the road. A couple had their hands up in the air or locked behind their heads, he told the court. Then one dropped to the ground.
Wuterich had taken a knee and was pointing his gun at the men, Dela Cruz said. He assumed his squad leader had seen something threatening and was shooting, so Dela Cruz opened fire.
Wuterich, who is now a staff sergeant, has said the Iraqi men started to run and he thought they might have triggered the bomb.
“I didn’t want to get blasted again,” Dela Cruz told the court, so he performed a “dead check” and sprayed bullets at the bodies. He was so close he couldn’t miss, he said.
Later, he urinated on the skull of one of the Iraqis who had been shot in the head. He regrets it now, Dela Cruz said. “The emotion took over, sir. We had just had one Marine (who) died,” and at the time he thought those men were the enemy, Dela Cruz told the court. Wuterich was promoted after the incident.