US Marine exonerated for song about killing Iraqis

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) The US military will not punish a Marine who performed an obscenity-laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis, the Marine Corps said.

The Marines two weeks ago launched a preliminary inquiry into whether Cpl Joshua Belile, who returned home from Iraq in March, violated military law or rules in singing the song, a four-minute video of which was posted on the Internet.

In the song, titled ''hadji girl,'' Belile sang to fellow troops at a base in Iraq about encountering an Iraqi woman and her family.

''I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally,'' he sang. Laughing, clapping and cheers can be heard in the background.

''The preliminary inquiry has been concluded. No punitive action will be taken against Corporal Belile. And there will be no further investigation,'' said Maj Shawn Haney yesterday, a spokeswoman at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina.

Haney said the inquiry ruled out any violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Another Marine Corps official, who asked not to be named because details of the inquiry are private, said poor taste, poor judgment and poor timing, not to mention offensive lyrics, do not necessarily amount to criminal conduct.

Belile, who is stationed at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina and is a member of a band called the Sweater Kittenz, this month apologised if the song hurt anyone's feelings.

He told the Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the song was ''supposed to be funny,'' with lyrics based on lines from the 2004 satirical movie ''Team America: World Police.'' The video's existence came to light at a time when the military is investigating the role of Marines in the deaths of 24 civilians in the city of Haditha in November. Last week, the military charged seven Marines and a Navy medic with premeditated murder in the killing of an Iraqi civilian in April.

REUTERS KD BST0925