Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt says no coalition soldiers serving in Iraq "are immune from prosecution."

The deputy director of operations for the Multinational Force in Iraq told reporters at the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) headquarters in Baghdad May 24 that any suggestion that coalition soldiers are somehow immune from either investigation or prosecution of wrongdoing "just is not correct."

Kimmitt made his comments in response to remarks by a reporter who alleged that coalition soldiers serving in Iraq enjoy immunity from prosecution. Nothing could be further from the truth, the military officers said, because soldiers remain "liable for prosecution by their own countries."

This is the case for U.S. soldiers who were allegedly involved in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention facility, he said. Once the digital photographs and videos of prisoner abuse were brought to the attention of American military authorities, Kimmitt said, they became part of an investigation. Criminal charges were soon levied against the soldiers involved, he said.

Efforts to prevent future abuse also are ongoing. The independent panel appointed May 12 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to review detention operations has already met once. Former Defense Secretary Harold Brown, one of four panel members, said the panelists want to know how and why "this terrible behavior" occurred and make sure that appropriate changes are made to prevent it from happening again.

Rumsfeld is seeking both verbal and written advice from the panel on how to fix what went wrong. The panel is scheduled to complete a report in July that will be sent to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and circulated to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military services, and commanders worldwide.

Kimmitt was asked to update reporters on the latest investigation into the May 19 ground and air assault at al-Qaim in western Iraq, near the Syrian border. The military is investigating whether the intended target of terrorists was hit successfully, or if, instead, a wedding party was attacked, as some media have reported.

Kimmitt said the military intelligence that prompted the attack, supported subsequently by forces on the ground and then by post-strike analysis, suggests that there was a significant foreign-fighter or smuggling way station in the middle of the desert ferrying people into the country "for the sole purpose of attacking to kill the people of Iraq."

During his May 22 and May 24 briefings, Kimmitt used slides of items found on the ground to bolster the military's contention that there was no wedding under way. He said rocket-propelled launchers, lots of pre-packaged clothing, terrorist training manuals, battery packs of the type normally associated with improvised explosive devises, and very high-powered binoculars typically used in conjunction with adjusting mortar rounds -- as well as needles and white powder which may be cocaine -- were found at the site.

The briefer said none of the bodies had wallets or identification cards on them. And, he said, no decorations, elaborate food or gifts were located at the scene.

The officer also said no witnesses have approached the U.S. military to say that any children were killed at al-Qaim. "We would appreciate anybody who has that information to come forward to the coalition forces and provide that information to us," Kimmitt said. "We have nothing to hide," he added, "We have drawn no determinations on this."

He also reported that coalition forces have paid $1.3 million as part of the weapons reward program in Iraq. The program netted more than 3,000 AK-47s rifles, 260 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 832 rocket rounds, 182 machine guns, more than 7,500 mortar rounds, 2,000 grenades, and 200 artillery rounds.

On the issue of when coalition forces will pull out of Iraq, Kimmitt said, "We can't leave until we can be relatively assured that the Iraqi security forces are capable of maintaining the defense of this country. We can't pull out ... so soon that it creates a security vacuum only to be filled by the likes of (Abu Musab) Zarqawi (or) ... Muqtada al-Sadr (or) ... the likes of terrorists or former regime elements that want to return this country to the days of Saddam."