US soldier says his commander killed five Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005 and asked him to lie about it.
A US soldier has told a military jury in California how his commander killed five Iraqi civilians in the western al-Anbar province in 2005 and then asked him to lie about it.
At a trial stemming from one of the Iraq war's most controversial episodes, Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz testified on Wednesday, the third day of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich's court martial.
Wuterich was Dela Cruz's squad leader, who Dela Cruz said gunned down the Iraqis after they pulled up in a car near the scene of a bombing in which a US marine had died.
In all, 24 Iraqi civilians including women and children were killed in the revenge attacks - 19 in several houses along with the five men who pulled up in a car in the town of Haditha on November 19, 2005.
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