Remember how all the "insurgents" in Iraq suddenly became "al Qaeda" members? Well, the Bush League and their corporate media stenographers have extended this labelling to anyone killed by US Forces:
Village disputes story of deadly attack
BBC News, June 26, 2007
...On 22 June the US military announced that its attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen who had been trying to infiltrate the village of al-Khalis, north of Baquba, where operation "Arrowhead Ripper" had been under way for the previous three days.
The item was duly carried by international news agencies and received widespread coverage, including on the BBC News website.
But villagers in largely-Shia al-Khalis say that those who died had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. They say they were local village guards trying to protect the township from exactly the kind of attack by insurgents the US military says it foiled.
Carelessness or coverup? You make the call.