"Our ROE stipulate if they are carrying a gun then they are fair game and a legitimate target." (Teribus)

Oh I see - shoot first & ask questions later. You admit it. (Foolestroupe)

From that do I take it that you would rather allow the enemy to fire at our troops first before they are allowed to take steps to defend themselves? You are aptly named Fool

"Walk around in a hat with "PRESS" in big letters on the side and idiots keep hitting you in the head. Pity not everybody reads English..." (Foolestroupe)

Well as we are discussing a specific incident here Fool, hating to point out the obvious but the guys flying the helicopters most certainly would be capable of both reading the word "PRESS" and fully understanding what it meant.

"So then why all the Official refusals to release this material that had to be dragged out thru FOI procedures. Only ONE answer - ONE BIG COVERUP."

Standard procedure Fool, UK Coroners have requested gun camera evidence to be submitted as evidence before during Inquests and they have been refused and there are a number of very good reasons for not releasing such evidence. As time progresses things change and it becomes possible for the images to be released. But again hating to point out the obvious if there had been as you state "ONE BIG COVER-UP", then the footage and the rest of the photographic evidence from the incident would not have been shown to anybody - TRUE?? As it was within two weeks Reuters staff had been shown everything, now effective a cover up was that??

Lox, under what delusional reasoning are you equating Baghdad in July 2007 with London during the Blitz of 1940? For your information during the latter (which did take place as part of a global war in which nations declared war on one another) family groups did not drive round in vans during the middle of air raids looking for incidents in which they could play the Good Samaritan. Most were tucked away as safely as they could possibly get under their stairs at home; in Anderson Shelters in their back gardens; in Tube Stations or in purpose built air raid shelters. Outside during the air raids you had the Auxiliaries; The Police; The Fire Service; the ambulance crews; the ARP.

Where the father was irresponsible was in driving his children into a situation that at the time was far from clear and what turned out to be the middle of an ongoing fire-fight. I would not have done it, as a parent, love for my children would dictate that my duty and sole responsibility lay in ensuring that they were safe.

As for the Pilots,... They did the job they were there for, their ROE allowed them to engage that group and that is precisely what they did.

Don T what exactly is your experience of men who are hunting a group of well armed and armoured modern troops?? From your contributions I would say that that experience is fairly minute, or more likely non-existent. Please tell us in the hour before they set up their ambush how would they be dressed?? How would they be "walking about"?? Where would their weapons be stowed?? How do they receive their instructions about where they should position themselves for the attack?? Or do you believe that all the above vis done by telepathy, after all ever since that bloody stupid US Congressman opened his big fat mouth they know better than to use the mobile phone networks.

Not Iraq, but Afghanistan, our ROE there dictate that a member of the Taleban carrying an AK-47 can be fired upon. He can fire a full magazine from his AK-47 at you and you can shoot back at him. If at any point in this exchange he puts that weapon down on the ground he is free to walk away, you are not permitted to fire, even although he could have just killed, or wounded, those standing to your right and left. Normal convention is that in fire-fights if Taleban come out to recover a dead or wounded comrade they are not fired upon, they are allowed to recover the body for burial, but if any one of them makes any attempt to recover the weapon the injured or dead man was using then they all get chopped, and believe me Don depending upon the circumstances there has been many a reported occasion where the snipers covering the activity are most definitely muttering "Please pick up a weapon, any weapon". It is not a bloody game, they realise it, our troops realise it, high bloody time that you did too.

For him the kids were just a twenty point bonus in his real life video game.

So is born the myth - US forces deliberately target and kill children - eh DonT?? Ignores the FACT that the crews of neither helicopter had any idea of who or what was in that van when they opened fire. They reported what they could see was happening and their controller gave them specific permission to open fire and engage the target, that is what they did. The wounded children were not discovered, i.e. their existence was not known, until about 10 -15 minutes after the arrival of US troops on the scene. Trouble is you cannot even tell yourself the truth.

Questions for you Charley Noble (they are mostly rhetorical as the answers are already known):

1. Were there armed men in the group engaged - YES

2. Were US Forces moving through, or about to move through this area? - YES

3. Had US Forces on patrol already come under attack elsewhere in the area? - YES

Sorry Charley, no tragic mistake, an ambush or an attack was being set up and those Reuters reporters were covering it, making no attempt at all to identify themselves as reporters, most likely at the insistance of the people who invited them to attend. In short Charley they paid the price for stupidity in a combat zone.