Define "Civilian"

The headline is: "Americans Kill Innocent Civilians!" But the truth is somewhat different: "Steve Schippert has the latest on "innocent civilians" killed in Baghdad.. You'll notice that those "innocent civilians" just happened to be Shia militiamen and the witnesses and government officials probably Shia politicians with links to those same militias." How can you define "civilian" in Iraq? It's a well-known scam used by Islamic terrorists to claim that "innocent civilians were killed by Americans," when those "described" as "innocent civilians" turn out to be armed combatants and the complainers are, too. In other cases, terrorists pack innocent civilians into a house, then attack a military unit outside, drawing them into the house. Then they run out the back, leaving the "innocent civilians (usually including some children) to take the fire from frightened soldiers who only see people inside a house from which they had been attacked. An interesting twist on this scam is to tie empty guns to the hands of some of those "civilians" so as to make sure the soldiers, who have scant seconds to decide to shoot or be killed, shoot them, thereby making an excellent public relations boon for the terrorists. You can be sure there will always be a "witness in place, to "testify" to the ruthlessness of the Americans and ignore the original attack on those troops. (National Review, 10/5/07)