Injured Iraqi 'executed'

Pentagon chiefs have ordered an urgent war crimes investigation into claims that a US soldier carried out an execution-style killing of an Iraqi prisoner.

The probe comes after several American TV networks broadcast graphic footage of the incident as marines searched a mosque during operations in Fallujah.

A TV camera crew filmed the soldier as he shot the unarmed and badly wounded suspected insurgent in the head.

Parts of the NBC pooled report were so graphic that most news programmes did not show the shots being fired, broadcasting just the sound.

The incident threatens to ignite another damaging row over alleged brutality by American forces, after the torture and abuse of captives at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison earlier this year. Footage taken on Saturday captures a squad of marines entering a mosque that had been used by insurgents as a base for attacks on American troops.

They were investigating reports of movement inside the building.

A number of bloodied and seemingly lifeless bodies can be seen lying on the floor and propped against an inside wall.

One marine can be heard shouting at an elderly man, saying: "He's f***ing faking he's dead. He's faking he's f***ing dead."

The camera closes in on the Iraqi prisoner, who chest can be seen rising and falling. At that moment another marine steps forward and fires his gun into the man's head and another voice can be heard saying: "Well, he's dead now." The footage shows the bullet impact, blood splattering on the wall and the man's body going limp.

NBC correspondent Kevin Sites, who was imbedded with the troops, identified the unit as the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, who had stormed the mosque on Friday night, killing 10 fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles, and wounding five others.

The badly wounded Iraqis had not been taken away for medical treatment, and Sites said two of them were bleeding to death and a third already seemed dead.

All the captives had been shot again when marines returned the following morning, Sites said.

Sites reported that the prisoner who was about to be shot dead "did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way".

A marine in the unit had been killed a day earlier while tending an insurgent's booby-trapped body.

The latest incident comes after TV footage showed US troops shooting wounded Iraqis in open ground during fighting in Fallujah. The marine involved in the mosque shooting was said to have been wounded in the face a day earlier and has now been withdrawn from combat operations while an investigation is carried out.

A probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Unit will decide if the killing violated any of the rules of war, a defence source said.