John of Argghhh! has a great posting about the Marine unit that was forced to leave Afghanistan after being accused of shooting civilians after being ambushed by Taliban fighters.  I expected there was more to this story after it happened and John has been able to provide the rest of the story.  Here is a sample:

What Really Happened at Marko on March 3?

I am a Seattle Native working on economic development in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan and currently residing in Jalalabad. I keep in touch with the new in Seattle thanks to the Seattle Times daily email for which I wish to thank you. Today, March 5, you ran an Associated Press article entitled U.S. Forces Blamed for Civilian Deaths by Rahim Faiez. That article disturbs me in that it is unnecessarily inflammatory, very biased, and not very accurate. It unjustly makes out American Marines who had just been attacked as a bunch of out of control killers firing wildly without discretion as they escaped that attack.

What really happened? Three US Marine up-armored humvees were returning to their base in Jalalabad. While passing thru a market place in a rural village, a mini-van, laden with explosives was driven into the small convoy and was detonated by the suicide bomber driving it. The Marines then came under fire from a number of positions along side the road. It was obvious that the intent of the bomber was to disable the vehicles and the gunmen to kill those that survived. The Marines returned fire as they drove rapidly away. One Marine was wounded. When the battle was over, 8 civilians were killed and 34 others, including a Marine had been wounded. The several bullet impacts on the escaping vehicles attested to the fact that they had been fired upon by gunmen; a fact that the AP reporter failed to mention. The attack seemed to have been a rather well planned one, and it appears that the planning included manipulation of the news as is often the case with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Make sure to go and read the rest over at Argghhh.