[El Gato]

The Marine's involved claimed they killed all of them when they raided the house.

Of course they could have been mistaken. They could have fired on the house, and then went in and found the bodies. Doesn't mean they killed them all.

Also, how do we know the Marines involved claimed this? Have we seen their reports? Or the photos that the CoS of the Marine Corps has seen?

[spunkets]

See this reply. The Marines advanced on and assaulted the first 2 houses as a prepared move with a guard in place just outside the houses. The terrorists disappeared before the Marines got into position to assault the houses. The Marines covered ~50 yards of open ground before they took up positions outside the house. That means the level of fire wasn't that great during the advance. The assault on the 1st house began after Sgt Wuterich claimed he heard what sounded like an AK being loaded. The assault team and the Marines that later showed up to view the results would have noted who was responsible for the deaths inside the houses.