Fog of war?

Yesterday, I made reference to a murky battle that U.S. and Iraqi forces fought in Najaf. Contradicting accounts have streamed across the newswires for days, but none more disturbing than this story in today's Independent [UK]. I won't attempt to summarize, you need to read it on your own, but long story short the word "massacre" is being bandied about. This is going to get ugly.