Quote:
Originally Posted by Walt
When the Apache gunship engaged the reporters, they believed them to be enemy combatants for the reasons repeatedly stated (and re-stated below). The people in the van showed up about two minutes after the reporters had been shot. That means they were in the immediate area at the time of the shooting. If they were in the immediate area, then they knew that the people in the street were shot by a really big American gun. US ground forces were also in the immediate area and that they were in a gunfight. Taking that in to account, the folks in the van displayed an irrational behavior by moving TOWARDS the gunfire and still-smoking bodies. Their van displayed no markings in accordance with IRCRS policy or anything to indicate that they were medical personnel. If the Apache crew had only this information to operate on, then for all intents and purposes, it is understandable that they interpreted the actions of the vans occupants to be aiding in the escape of an injured, possibly armed insurgent.
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They knew that the man on the ground being helped did not have a weapon. If they did not know, you would have not heard the gunner pleading for the injured man to pick up a gun. I'm not buying that 'close enough to count' line either. It was clearly a distinct enough incident to require separate permission to engage and should have been weighed on it's own merits. Those folks in the van, at the time they were engaged, were not posing a threat to anyone.