Nick Broomfield is making a film about the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians and insurgents by US marines in Haditha. He will begin shooting in Jordan this November using a small film crew and non-actors for the principal roles.
Broomfield said: "We're telling [the story of] this 24-hour time period around the incident, from the point of view of the insurgency, the local people who are stuck between the insurgency and the marines, and the marines themselves, who had all been through Fallujah."
On November 19 2005, a roadside bomb in the Sunni town of Haditha killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas. The US military initially claimed that 15 civilians had died in the blast, but then said that the civilians were accidentally shot by marines during a gun battle with insurgents. However, eyewitness accounts and a video shot by a local journalist have suggested that the civilian deaths were revenge killings.
"It's a narrative film," said Broomfield. "You don't want to end up stymied by everything having to be completely authenticated. We met with survivors from the massacre, we met with marines who were there, and we've got leads to the insurgency, so it's closely based on the people who were there."