They tried to surrender.

One report reaching the U.S. military said that some of the 12 soldiers whose supply convoy was ambushed near Nassiriya in southern Iraq on Sunday were killed by their captors although they tried to surrender, a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the report received from the field said that the U.S. soldiers “weren’t given the opportunity to surrender. They attempted to surrender.” Some of the U.S. soldiers instead were killed by the Iraqi forces, the official said.

The official did not characterize the nature or reliability of the intelligence information on which this report was based. The official also did not indicate where the surrendering soldiers were slain.

If this is true, then it exemplifies everything we have been stating about Saddam’s regime. Of course, I wonder whether the peacemongers will say anything about these executions contravening “international law”.