NYT is disputing wapo story that Hegseth ordered survivors killed

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But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.

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The commander overseeing the operation from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, told people on the secure conference call that the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo, according to two people. He ordered the second strike to fulfill Hegseth’s directive that everyone must be killed.

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A broad range of legal experts reject that analysis. But even if this were an armed conflict, it is a war crime to kill enemies who are out of the fight. That category includes enemy fighters who have surrendered or are otherwise defenseless and pose no threat.

“Members of the armed forces must refuse to comply with clearly illegal orders to commit law of war violations,” the Pentagon’s law of war manual says, adding: “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”

It also says that it is “prohibited to conduct hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors, or to threaten the adversary with the denial of quarter,” which means refusing to spare the life of an enemy who has surrendered or is unable to fight.

Geoffrey Corn, who was the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues, said he believed the entire attack was illegal, because he rejects the administration’s argument that the situation can be legitimately treated as an armed conflict.

But even if it were one, he said, an order specifically to finish off shipwrecked survivors — whether or not Admiral Bradley believed he was carrying out Mr. Hegseth’s instructions — would be unambiguously criminal

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And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.

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That category includes enemy fighters who have surrendered or are otherwise defenseless and pose no threat.

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