Point of order: it's actually just an everyday crime. Murder, to be specific.
This is not a military action; it's just killing people. No different than a bunch of American soldiers entering a bar somewhere in some country the US is not at war with and opening fire on the patrons.
They'd be murderers, just like anybody else.
@RustyRing The difference is, they were ordered to, by the apparent lawful govt authority. That makes it a crime of the state, rather than of individuals, even if the individual perpetrators are also criminally liable.
This is a crime being committed by our government, not drunken sailors.
Point taken, but it's still not a war crime. There is no war, and the targets are civilians who haven't been accused of being belligerents in a war. (Let alone determined to be by due process, but I think we both know that's a principle only found in the past now.)
So that at least makes the officials who ordered these hits common murderers, and possibly those who carried them out, under established strictures against following illegal orders.
Randahl Fink
RustyRing
WesDym