text: Legal Considerations
  during occupation, where armed forces are engaged in combat with armed nonstate actors, or other persons
  who are not part of a state’s armed forces. Any hostilities between state and non-state actors may rise to the
  level of a non-international armed conflict. A non-international armed conflict may exist in the same area
  of operations as an ongoing international armed conflict. An armed conflict exists whenever there is a
  resort to armed force between states (in an international armed conflict) or protracted armed violence
  between governmental authorities and organized armed groups or between such groups within a state (in a
  non-international armed conflict). Regardless of the context, U.S. forces obey the law of war. The U.S. is
  bound by the law of war treaties to which it is a party, as well as binding norms of customary international
  law.
  13-11. The law of war is the branch of international law applicable to the conduct of armed conflict and
  concerns the rights and relationships among the participants and victims of armed conflicts. It is often
  called the law of armed conflict or international humanitarian law. The law of war generally regulates the
  use of force to the amount necessary to achieve the aim of the conflict and spares those who do not or no
  longer directly participate in hostilities. The purposes of adhering to the law of war include—
  * Ensuring good order and discipline.
  * Fighting in a disciplined manner consistent with U.S. national values.
  * Maintaining domestic, international, and local support.
  * Protecting combatants, noncombatants, and civilians from unnecessary suffering.
  * Safeguarding persons who fall into the hands of an enemy.
  * Facilitating the restoration of peace.
  13-12. The primary sources of the law of war include the various Hague Conventions, the four Geneva
  Conventions of 1949, the 1980 UN Conventional Weapons Convention and its five protocols, and
  customary international law. Many nations that have been recent coalition partners with the U.S. are also
  parties to two additional 1977 protocols to the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I and Additional
  Protocol II. However, the U.S. is not a party to these two protocols. Without recognizing the authority of
  these two protocols, the U.S. recognizes that many of their provisions, some of which are discussed in this
  manual, are either an accurate statement of the law or consistent with U.S. practice.
  13-13. The law of war is based on the following fundamental principles:
  * First, military necessity, that is, that a belligerent is justified in applying those measures not
  forbidden by international law which are indispensable for securing the complete submission of
  the enemy as soon as possible.
  * Second, humanity, which requires military forces to avoid inflicting gratuitous violence on the
  enemy.
  * Third, discrimination, which posits that military attacks should be directed at combatants and
  other military targets, not civilians or civilian property.
  * Fourth, proportionality, expressed in the concept that the expected incidental loss of civilian life,
  injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects must not be excessive in relation to the
  concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
  MILITARY NECESSITY
  13-14. The principle of military necessity is expressed in Article 23(g), of Hague IV Annex., which
  forbids a belligerent to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, unless such destruction or seizure be
  imperatively demanded by the necessities of war. While no law of war treaty defines military necessity, its
  role is recognized in many treaties to which the U.S. is a state party. Moreover, the U.S. has defined
  military necessity in its law of war manuals. Military necessity is that principle which justifies those
  measures not forbidden by international law which are indispensable for securing the complete submission
  of the enemy as soon as possible. (See FM 27-10 for more information on military necessity.)
  13-15. Military necessity does not authorize all military action and destruction. Under no circumstances
  may military necessity authorize actions specifically prohibited by the law of war, such as the murder of
  prisoners of war, ill-treatment of prisoners of war or internees, the taking of hostages, or the execution of a
  reprisal against a person or object specifically protected from reprisal. Civilian objects are generally