Civilians didn't need to die, says Marine

On 4 March, 2007, following a suicide attack on a US convoy on a highway in Nangarhar province, US Marines opened fire along a 12km stretch of road killing some 19 civilians and injuring many more. An investigation by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) found that the soldiers had used indiscriminate and excessive force.

More on that story:

Two Marines differ on details of deadly shooting

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C., Jan 9 (AP) - Two Marines who rode in the same vehicle during a deadly shooting in Afghanistan gave a Marine Corps panel dramatically different accounts of what happened.

Nathaniel Travers, a former staff sergeant, said Afghans were killed needlessly. But Staff Sgt. Jose Queiro, who was riding in the gun turret of the same Humvee, said the Marines performed professionally when their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomber.

Travers and Queiro were called Tuesday during the first day of testimony at a fact-finding proceeding...

Travers, a former intelligence sergeant who left the Marines last year and who acknowledged he was unhappy in the Marine Corps, disagreed [with Queiro]. ''I really felt there were a lot of people who died who didn't need to,'' he said. ''They were just driving their cars.'' (link)