You remind me of a scene from the movie <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i> (based on the life of the man by that name) where he talks about &quot;We do not let any of our people fall into enemy hands because they are considered (something something) thus not protected by the Geneva Convention.&quot; In other words, it was their policy to shoot their own people who were too injured to travel rather than let them be taken as prisoners and tortured by the enemy. It was considered a mercy killing.<p>Edit: In other words, they were not recognized as a proper army and were deemed to be something like internal rebel forces, subject to internal law only, with no International protections, such as the Geneva Convention. They were treated horribly when taken into custody and often tortured.