The AP reports:

U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow women and children to leave. The troops then moved in - only to discover that the militants had slipped out, dressed in women's burqa robes....

On Monday, images from a Predator drone showed a dozen fighters and at least 15 to 20 civilians inside a mud-brick compound in the village of Khan Neshin, about 60 miles north of the Pakistani border.

Because of the civilians, the U.S. troops held their fire, and instead used a military translator and village elder to persuade the militants to free women and children.

Two groups - children and what appeared to be women in burqas - left the compound. When the Marines entered, they found no one. The fighters had clearly donned burqas and slipped away among the civilians, according to Marines who took part in the mission.

The Americans didn't have female Marines with them to search the robed figures and make sure no men were among them in disguise. And the new U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has said he would rather see militants escape than for civilians to be harmed in battle; a declassified version of his new guidelines for troops were released Monday.

McChrystal has a tough job and should be given tremendous latitude in shaping a battle plane for the coming year, but this is certainly disconcerting. The problem with using air power and heavy weapons is that the inevitable civilian casualties turn the population against U.S. forces. But not using such weapons obviously creates its own problems. Having the civilian population on your side won't do much good if there are Taliban fighters in every village. Hopefully McChrystal and his men will find some way to kill the bad guys without incurring collateral damage, but it doesn't seem they've struck upon a winning formula just yet.