Army probe substantiates AP report that U.S. troops shot Korean civilians

Anti-American protesters wave signs during a rally outside the War Museum in Seoul on Wednesday

But investigators say panic, not orders, led to killings

In this story: AP: Documents support allegations of orders to shoot civilians Reporter defends story RELATED STORIES, SITES

From CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. Army investigation concluded that U.S. troops acted out of panic when they fired into a crowd of Korean civilians near a railroad bridge at No Gun Ri during the early months of the Korean War, sources close to the investigation told CNN Wednesday.

A 1999 Associated Press report, which won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, quoted U.S. Korean War veterans as estimating hundreds died at No Gun Ri. The report also quoted Korean relatives as saying 300 civilians were gunned down by U.S. soldiers and 100 others were killed in a prior strafing attack by U.S. Air Force planes.

Army investigators concluded that Korean civilians were killed at the site but could not determine how many, sources say. The investigators also could not find documentary evidence that the killings were undertaken under orders.

Instead the report concludes that the troops fired out of panic and because of a well-founded fear that North Korean soldiers had infiltrated refugee groups, one U.S. official told CNN.

A U.S. official involved in reviewing the work of investigators told CNN the incident was a "tragedy of war," not an atrocity on the order of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

He described the U.S. troops as "poorly led, in total disarray" as they were retreating to the south and being overrun by enemy troops.

"It was a very bad scene, the unit was under pressure, demoralized, and in that condition bad things can happen," the official said.

Riot police raise their shields to try to deflect flying eggs thrown over a wall into a U.S. Army base in Seoul on Wednesday

AP: Documents support allegations of orders to shoot civilians

In its original report last year, the AP cited wartime documents showing at least three high-level Army headquarters and an Air Force command ordered troops to treat as hostile any civilians approaching U.S. positions.

On July 24, 1950, two days before the events at No Gun Ri, 1st Cavalry division units were instructed: "No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines. Use discretion in case of women and children."

But investigators noted that the order went to a different unit and did not sanction the indiscriminate shooting of innocent civilians.

The Associated Press has stuck by its original story, reporting last month that two former soldiers who handled radio and message traffic told Pentagon investigators that American troops had orders from higher-ups to fire on civilian refugees at No Gun Ri.

The AP said the sworn statements by Lawrence Levine and James Crume, who were assigned to the headquarters of 2nd battalion, 7th Cavalry regiment, support recollections of some other veterans that they were ordered to shoot civilians for fear North Korean infiltrators were among them.

Reporter defends story

In an e-mail to CNN earlier this year, one of the Associated Press reporters who wrote the original story, Charles Hanley, argued that "the question of orders at the scene is decidedly secondary."

"Of much greater importance is the fact that there were blanket orders in effect to shoot civilians, orders that covered the entire warfront," Hanley wrote in defense of his story.

The Army is expected to release its report later this month, Pentagon officials said.

Still unresolved is whether the United States will apologize or pay compensation to the relatives of the victims.

U.S. called on to conduct open, fair probe into No Gun Ri killings
December 5, 2000
Ex-GIs say No Gun Ri orders came from higher HQ
November 21, 2000
U.S. Army hopes to release No Gun Ri findings by end of year
September 28, 2000
Attorneys for No Gun Ri survivors want speedier investigation, compensation
March 6, 2000
U.S. repeats vow to investigate massacre at No Gun Ri
November 13, 1999

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