The Baghdad government vowed Wednesday to take legal action after an American marine was spared jail by a US military court over the massacre of 24 unarmed civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha in 2005. The verdict, widely panned in Iraq as being too light, closed a case that fuelled anger and highlighted why authorities demanded Americans be subject to local laws in failed talks to extend the US military presence in the country beyond 2011. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who led an eight-man squad whose other members have all been let off, was sentenced to 90 days confinement but will not serve the term, under a deal with prosecutors. “We think that the punishment is not suitable with the crime that was committed,” Ali Mussawi, spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told AFP.
