Yes, Some of those Killed in Iraq Video Were Carrying Weapons

A Newsweek blogger writes that we don't know if any of the 12 men killed in the 2007 video of an operation in Baghdad "had weapons."

WikiLeaks presented the video without a great deal of context, so we're equally hindered by what we don't know: who the other men are, whether any of them in fact had weapons, and whether there was good reason to believe they had been engaged in hostile activities before the film started rolling.

The footage is grainy, but, in fact, it is very clear that some of the men were carrying weapons. See this photo at the Jawa report. Clearly one man is carrying a gun and, it seems to me, the other is carrying an RPG. According to the military, troops on the ground had taken fire and called in for air support. As Bill Roggio wrote yesterday, "note how empty the streets are in the video. The only people visible on the streets are the armed men and the accompanying Reuters cameramen. This is a very good indicator that there was a battle going on in the vicinity. Civilians smartly clear the streets during a gunfight."

Indeed. Why would the streets be empty in mid-morning if a gunfight hadn't just occurred?