Marine expert says Marine vehicle was fired on in Afghanistan Back story reminder:

Mero was the first defense witness to corroborate the version of events from Marines in Fox Company, who said they were fired upon March 4 after a suicide bomber detonated a white van packed with explosives.

Some witnesses have said they didn't see anyone shooting at the six-vehicle convoy.

As many as 19 civilians were killed, according to an Army investigation, but attorneys for two Marine officers involved in the incident say the death toll was lower.

The Marine Company was subsequently ordered out of the country after protests from the government and from the local populace. There is a question about how many casualties there were besides if they were fired on by small arms fire.

Typical insurgent tactic picked up from Iraq is to explode an IED or, in this case, suicide VBIED (vehicle borne improvised explosive device) and follow on with an ambush using small arms, RPGs and mortars depending on the terrain and number of insurgents. The Marines contend that this was exactly the kind of typical attack that occurred and that they were using appropriate force to defend themselves.

The question of casualties among civilians is also important. Aside from Afghanistan's notoriously bad government control and collation of information, particularly casualties from any event, there is the problem of enemy propaganda which typically tries to claim all deaths as "civilians", ramp that number up and then insist that they have had no casualties themselves. This is part of a typical propaganda campaign that tries to paint civilians as victims of US aggression, the enemy as "protectors" of the people as well as untouchable ghosts that can come and go as they please.

It happened again recently when 9 "Afghan police" were allegedly killed in an air strike. That air strike was called in by a unit on patrol that came under heavy fire. It could be that the real Afghan police were not informed of the unit in their area and thought they were Taliban. It could be that there was no communication available to call the police off and they did as they were supposed to and drove towards the sound of guns. Or, it could be, that the "Afghan police" were actually members of the Taliban as such groups can and are infiltrated. They may have purposefully fired on the unit. In either case, the "police" never broke off contact and the unit called in an air strike.

That's the "fog of war".