Americans split over marine's 'war crimes'

A US marine under investigation for war crimes, after he told his local newspaper that he had executed an Iraqi soldier, has become a cause célèbre in his home town, Las Vegas, and has announced his intention to become a policeman.

Navy criminal investigators are questioning gunnery sergeant Gus Covarrubias, about his actions in a battle outside Baghdad's defence ministry on April 8.

Meanwhile, another battle rages in Las Vegas newspaper letter pages and internet chatrooms over whether he is a hero or a criminal.

"Gunny" Covarrubias, now back in Las Vegas recovering from concussion from the battle, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had tracked down two Iraqi soldiers he believed had fired a grenade at his unit, shooting one in the back of the head and another as he tried to escape.

He described his actions as meting out "justice". The Pen tagon disagrees. "If this story is true, then clearly it would be violation of the law of war," Captain Shawn Turner, a marine spokesman said.

"The navy criminal investigation service has begun a preliminary inquiry which it initiated the day after the story appeared, aimed at verifying his alleged actions."

The results will be handed to a military judge, who will decide whether the 38-year-old should face a court martial.

In his account of a "firefight from hell", Sgt Covarrubias said a rocket-propelled grenade launched at his unit threw him across a courtyard and knocked him out. Later, despite feeling disoriented with blurred vision, he took a pistol and left his company in search of the Iraqis who had fired the grenade, he said.

"I'm not vindictive. And I might get in trouble for telling you this, but I take it very personally when you do that to my family. The marines are my family," he told the newspaper.

The sergeant crept into a house he believed the grenade had been shot from and found a soldier from Iraq's Special Republican Guard next to a grenade launcher.

According to the published account, he ordered the Iraqi to stop, turn around, and remove his beret.

"I went behind him and shot him in the back of the head," Sgt Covarrubias said. "Twice."

Then he saw another Iraqi outside trying to run away, chased him down, and shot him too. It is not clear from his account whether that killing was also carried out execution-style.

He took the Iraqis' identity documents as a souvenir and showed them to the newspaper reporter, saying: "This is justice."

Sgt Covarrubias, who served as a sniper in the first Gulf war in 1991, claiming 30 kills, still suffers from dizziness and is hard of hearing in one ear, but maintains that his ambition is to join the Las Vegas police department.

His case and his plans to patrol the streets of the city have provoked a furious debate in the gambling capital. Several Las Vegans have declared him a local hero.

"The rules of war? Come on, what are you talking about? You've got to blow these suckers away before they kill you," said Tom Willis, a former navy Seal.

In the Review-Journal's internet chatroom, one reader, Steve Steckel, said the marine should be able to join the police if he met the normal requirements, but should be taught to more discreet.

"It should also be drummed (beaten, if necessary ) into his head that he should not release the clutch on his mouth unless his brain is also engaged," Mr Steckel argued.

Others were horrified at the idea of a possible vigilante roaming the streets.

"To top it all off, this guy wants to join metro [police]?," one reader said. "What, so Mr Covarrubias can execute some more prisoners in the name of justice?"