SENIOR US marine officers failed to carry out a proper investigation into reports that troops had killed civilians in Haditha, according to Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, the second highest ranking commander in Iraq.

Chiarelli has accused the marine officers of turning a blind eye to inconsistencies and inaccuracies in initial reports of the deaths. Twenty-four Iraqis, including women, children and an elderly man in a wheelchair, died in the incident last November.

An American defence official said the general had concluded that “some officers were derelict in their duties”. At the time of the killings the marines claimed the Iraqis had died in a roadside bombing and a gunfight, but their story unravelled as reports of an alleged massacre spread.

The general’s report is based on an investigation by Major-General Eldon Bargewell into whether the marines took part in a calculated cover-up. A separate US navy inquiry into the events is still under way.

The general’s findings are expected to be released in the next fortnight but some portions relating to criminal inquiries into the killings may be held back. Some marines may face charges of murder after Iraqi survivors and witnesses claimed a fire team moved from house to house, throwing in hand grenades and shooting the occupants.

The squad was said to have been incensed by the death of a fellow marine in a roadside bombing and went on the rampage.

American defence officials decided to go public early with news of Chiarelli’s report after a spate of accusations of US atrocities. Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, and General William Casey, the top commander in Iraq, apologised to the Iraqi people last week for the rape and murder in March of an Iraqi woman, possibly as young as 15, and the killing of her father, mother and sister in Mahmoudiya.

Steven Green, 21, an army private who was honorably discharged in May with mental problems, was arrested in North Carolina on Monday and has pleaded not guilty to the crime. At least three other soldiers are thought to have been involved.

The rape and murder case has inflamed Iraqis. “Where do we start to reflect on our calamities? Shall we start with the Iraqi girl who was raped, killed, burnt, and her family killed and her house burnt?” asked Sheikh Ahmed Abdel Ghafour, an imam at Baghdad’s Umm Qura mosque. “Is this American civilisation? Is this American liberation?”

Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, warned last week that he might ask the Americans to cancel a rule that grants US troops immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

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