A free-fire zone is an area in which any person present is deemed an enemy combatant who can be targeted by opposing military forces. The concept of a free-fire zone does not exist in international law, and failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians is a

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

World War II

General

Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...

in his autobiography describes his (and his associates') disapproval of shoot-anything-that-moves low level

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such a ...

missions during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(although they were not necessarily called "free-fire zone" missions). He described his feeling that, had the U.S. lost the war, it might have been considered a criminal activity.

Vietnam War

Returning veterans, affected civilians and others have said that U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam ( MACV), based on the assumption that all friendly forces had been cleared from the area, established a policy designating "free-fire zones" as areas in which: *Anyone unidentified is considered an enemy combatant *Soldiers were to shoot anyone moving around after curfew without first making sure that they were hostile. Gunter Lewy estimated that 1/3 of those killed and counted as "enemy KIA" killed by US/GVN 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. There are no distinctions between enemy KIA and civilian KIA inadvertently killed in the crossfire or through deployment of heavy artillery, aerial bombardment and so-on. Part of this stemmed from the doctrine requirements of producing "enemy

body count A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate. Often used in reference to military combat, the term can also r ...

" during the Vietnam War, which saw violations and statistical manipulations due to ongoing pressures from MACV on units.

Dellums hearings

Free-fire zones were discussed during 1971 ad hoc (i.e. not endorsed by Congress) hearings sponsored by Congressman

Ron Dellums Ronald Vernie Dellums (November 24, 1935 – July 30, 2018) was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California ...

(California), organized by Citizens' Commission of Inquiry on US War Crimes (CCI).

Lawrence Wilkerson

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson flew helicopters low and slow through Vietnam. He claims to have had vocal disagreements with some of his superiors and members of his own gunner crew over free-fire zones, including an incident in which one of his crew shot a wagon that had a little girl inside of it. He describes one incident in which he prevented an atrocity by purposely placing his helicopter between a position that was full of civilians and another helicopter that wanted to launch an attack on the position.

Israel–Hamas war

Israel has been accused of treating Gaza as a free fire zone during the war, indiscriminately shooting Palestinians in areas that the Israeli military has asked people to leave.

World War II

Vietnam War

Dellums hearings

Lawrence Wilkerson

Israel–Hamas war

See also

References

Further reading