Iraq plans to take legal action for Haditha victims

According to CBS, Iraq plans legal action on behalf of families of victims killed by U.S. troops in a 2005 massacre after the last soldier involved was spared jail time by a guilty plea with military authorities, a government spokesman said Thursday.

The Haditha massacre that killed 24 Iraqis, alongside the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and shootings by U.S. contractors in 2007, stoked global outrage against the nearly nine-year U.S. military presence after the 2003 invasion.

The last U.S. soldier accused in leading the massacre, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, was spared jail-time Tuesday when he was sentenced after pleading guilty to dereliction of duty. Original charges of involuntary manslaughter were dismissed.

"We will seek legal means to maintain the rights of the innocent citizens who were killed in the incident," said Ali al-Moussawi, media adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"We will follow whatever course we can follow legally," Moussawi said without giving details on actions.

The sentencing caused anger in Haditha, where a member of one of the victims' families called it an "insult to all Iraqis."

The killings were described by Iraqi witnesses and prosecutors as a massacre of unarmed civilians - including women and children -- carried out by Marines angered by the death of a member of their unit in a bombing. Chicago Tribune