Hit list draws fire in wake of leaked US documents

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - When it comes to war, killing the enemy is an accepted fact. But there are charges that some American commando operations in Afghanistan may have amounted to war crimes.

The thousands of pages of classified U.S. documents released Sunday by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.org include nearly 200 incidents involving an elite military unit tasked with hunting down and killing enemy combatants.

But military officials and experts are denouncing suggestions that U.S. troops are engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan. They say enemy hit lists may be ugly and uncomfortable, but they are an enduring and sometimes unavoidable staple of war.

Amnesty International's Tom Parker says it's hard to tell "where assassination ends and war starts."