""Was he a comabatant?
He had been.
He posed as such.
He had never announced a change of role.
Why should anyone not believe, in good faith, that he was a comabatant.
If he was not, and wanted to be treated as a non combatant, he should have told someone.
The US acted in good faith, on the evidence available.""

Irrelevant if, as reported, he was unarmed. If so, he was effectively already a prisoner, and we don't shoot prisoners do we? We hanged several Waffen SS men for doing that.

Don T.