WASHINGTON -- An initial U.S. military probe supports allegations that American Marines deliberately shot 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

The Marine Corps and Navy prosecutors are now reviewing the evidence to determine whether to recommend criminal charges. That decision may be weeks away, and the lawyers may ask investigators to probe further, two officials said.

"It's fair to say that the majority of the work has been done," said a third official, Ed Buice, spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service that is leading the probe. "But it's impossible to predict how much longer the investigation will take. It is very much open and ongoing."

The case is open because prosecutors and officers in the chain of command of the Marines being investigated may consult with the naval investigation service even after any charges are brought.

Napan not implicated

in investigation

An attorney for Luke McConnell, a Marine captain whose unit was involved in the incident, said Wednesday that McConnell is not implicated in the probe of the incident and that he has cooperated with a separate investigation into whether higher-ranking Marines covered up what happened.

Kevin McDermott, a Southern California lawyer representing McConnell, added McConnell recently has been assigned to a deployment exercise in Korea.

He said McConnell was in Haditha on the day of the incident but was not at the scene until later that day. McDermott said it has "He was not there when it occurred. There has never been an issue that (McConnell) issued an order to carry it out or knew about it if it occurred ... only a question about a cover-up."

McDermott added the investigation of a cover-up is directed at Marines of higher rank than McConnell.

McDermott also said the Korean assignment signals that McConnell is not a likely target of any probe. "No one has tapped him and said, 'You have bigger fish to fry this month," said McDermott.

A decision on whether to press charges against any of the Marines linked to the Haditha incident ultimately will be made by the commander of the Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. That currently is Lt. Gen. John Sattler, but he is to move to a Pentagon assignment soon. His successor will be Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

Investigators failed to obtain permission to exhume the bodies of the 24 who were killed, two officials said. The probe did collect evidence from the Marines and from the scene of the killings.

What happened

The Marines initially reported after the Nov. 19, 2005, killings at Haditha that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by a makeshift roadside bomb and in crossfire between Marines and insurgent attackers. Based on accounts from survivors and human rights groups, Time magazine reported in March that the killings were deliberate acts by the Marines.

A criminal investigation was then ordered by the top Marine commander in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer.

A parallel investigation is examining whether officers in the Marines' chain of command tried to cover up the events.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday the cover-up probe's report was 3,000-4,000 pages long and being reviewed by Army Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq.

Regarding the criminal investigation, Pace described it as "ongoing" and said it would remain so until military authorities have reviewed its results as well as the findings and recommendations of the cover-up probe.

(Register Managing Editor Bill Kisliuk contributed to this report.)