[JURIST] Shortly after a meeting with President Bush, new Iraqi ambassador to the United States and former Iraq ambassador to the United Nations Samir al-Sumaida'ie [UN profile] said in a CNN interview Tuesday that US Marines intentionally killed [CNN transcript] his 21-year old cousin, Mohammed al-Sumaida'ie, in Haditha last June during a routine house search. Al-Sumaida'ie added that the second-year engineering student never showed any signs of violence and that he would like to see further investigation into his cousin's death [JURIST report], beyond the probe opened last August [JURIST report]. US Defense Department [official website] officials have said that the boy was shot in self-defense.

Al-Sumaida'ie's accusations come at the heels of two investigations [JURIST report] into the death of 24 civilian Iraqis in Haditha last November. TIME magazine reported in March that the deaths may have been carried out by US Marines in retribution [TIME report] for a roadside bomb that killed one of their comrades. The investigation is still ongoing [JURIST report] but several sources in the military have indicated that criminal charges [JURIST report] will likely be brought against those involved. AFP has more.