The most comprehensive reporting yet on the case of Ilario Pantano - from this weeks time magazine:

Monday, Feb. 28, 2005
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"No better friend, no worse enemy."  The words echoed through 2nd Lieut. Ilario Pantano's head on the afternoon of April 15, 2004. That was the motto of Lieut. General James Mattis, at the time the commander of the 1st Marine Division in Iraq. Like many junior officers, Pantano looked up to Mattis as the consummate warrior-general. The phrase had stuck with Pantano as he tried to keep his men alive in some of Iraq's meanest neighborhoods, where friends are hard to find.

Now, at the most fateful moment of his life, the words came back to haunt Pantano. It was late afternoon, and darkness was setting in. Pantano and his platoon were on a raid north of Mahmudiyah, not far from Baghdad, acting on a tip about a possible insurgent hideout. As the Marines neared their target, they spotted a car fleeing the area. Pantano's men set up a checkpoint and ordered the car to stop. Inside were two Iraqis. One looked to be in his 30s, the other in his late teens. According to accounts given to TIME by Pantano's civilian lawyer, Charles Gittins, the lieutenant had the men get out of the car and remove the seat panels to show there were no hidden explosives or weapons. Pantano watched, covering them with his M-16. At one point they began talking, and Pantano shouted at them to stop. Then, according to Pantano's defenders, the Iraqis turned rapidly and in unison toward him. LINK TO MORE