A Northern Ireland legal firm planning to sue the US on behalf of an Iraqi family who lost four members at a checkpoint shooting has accused US military leaders of being "dismissive and misleading".
Mr Ritchie McRitchie, a solicitor with Madden & Finucane, the legal firm once partly owned by loyalist murder victim Pat Finucane, said the US army was officially investigating the shootings but had not interviewed any witnesses or examined the scene.
Mr Ritchie travelled to Iraq last month to investigate the shootings along with two other solicitors from the firm.
He said that Madden & Finucane was in consultation with a number of US lawyers and was examining how to begin a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the US.
Haded abd al-Kerim, a 13-year-old girl, was shot dead by US troops along with her father and two older siblings on August 7th last. They had been travelling towards a US military checkpoint that Mr McRitchie claimed was not identifiable.
A person in a car in front of them was also shot dead and two people were arrested.
Mr McRitchie said he had not been allowed to order a forensic examination but photographs of the first car indicated the handbrake had been applied as the car reached the checkpoint. He said it appeared they didn't see it until it was too late.
Pentagon spokesman Major Michael Shavers said yesterday that it was too early to comment on the case as the Defence Department had yet to receive legal papers from Madden & Finucane.