In his first public comments on the gruesome attack last June, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk told The Associated Press that Soldiers were asked to come back to base often for rest. But he also said checkpoints were undermanned, and that his commanders rejected his requests for more troops in the particularly dangerous part of Iraq where the Soldiers were attacked.

"I don't believe that they were there for 36 hours, to be quite honest with you, because that's not the way rotation schedules were set up," said Kunk, former commander of the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment. "I can tell you that when I traversed and traveled throughout the battlefield, that's not the kind of stuff I was seeing."

Kunk, who will remain at Fort Campbell as rear division commander during the 101st's next deployment, also denied that the Soldiers were isolated from other troops in the unit, saying other Humvees were in clear view.

Spc. David J. Babineau was killed at a river checkpoint south of Baghdad on June 16, 2006, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker were abducted. The mutilated bodies of the kidnapped Soldiers were found three days later, tied together and booby-trapped with bombs.

An Army investigating officer, Lt. Col. Timothy Daugherty, said in his summary that the Soldiers were told to stand guard for up to 36 hours with just one Humvee, and there were no barriers on the road to slow traffic or provide early warning. Units are free to establish their own rules for how long Soldiers should be on patrol, but Daugherty said 36 hours is unrealistic.

"This was an event caused by numerous acts of complacency, and a lack of standards at the platoon level," Daugherty wrote in a report provided to the AP last month. Two officers, a lieutenant and a captain, were removed from their commands over the incident by the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad at the time.

The Sunni area south of Baghdad was among Iraq's most violent, known among Soldiers as the "Triangle of Death." Soldiers there lived in austere buildings or undermanned checkpoints despite requests for more Soldiers, Kunk said.

Kunk said his brigade commanders asked him to work with what he had.

"We've got to make sure that we listen to that leader on the ground. It's a tough fight out there," Kunk said.

Members of Kunk's battalion included five Soldiers charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, and killing her and three of her relatives last year. Three Soldiers have pleaded guilty in the case; trials are pending for a Soldier and a former Soldier.

Kunk declined to discuss specifics about the case.

"They took ownership and responsibility for their actions, actions that I find to be despicable," Kunk said of the Soldiers who have pleaded guilty. "They are not part of my values system."

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