Gunter Lewy estimated that 1/3 of those killed and counted as "enemy KIA" killed by US/ARVN forces were civilians. He estimates around 220,000 civilians were counted as "enemy KIA" in battlefield operations reports during battles against VC/NVA. Lewy estimated the use of free-fire zones was an important factor in this.[4] [5] For official US military operations reports on free-fire zones, there are no distinctions between enemy KIA and civilian KIA since it was assumed by US forces that all individuals killed in an area declared a free-fire zone, regardless of whether they were combatants or civilians, were considered enemy KIA.[6][1][7] Since body counts was a direct measure of operational success, this often caused US battle reports to list civilians killed as enemy KIA.
mmm WATSO better not mention what the abc exposed about our brave australian soldiers in afghanistan
