It's up there with "military combatant", soldier-speak that works its way into regular language when we journalists parrot the official talking points and the phrases of politicians with an agenda.
The Geneva Conventions split people on a battlefield into two categories: combatants (soldiers) and non-combatants (civilians).
Immediately alerting battalion headquarters, Captain Alexander MacKenzie who had assumed temporary command of the battalion hurriedly organised a group of non-combatant soldiers from headquarters together with several signallers to form a defensive line along a road bank in order to fend off the expected German advance.
When Mr. Aristide dissolved the Haitian Army in 1995, there was no mass disarmament of combatants -- soldiers were simply sent home and allowed to keep their weapons.
He asked the Security Council today to order all foreign troops out of Congo and threatened to use economic sanctions or military force against any of the combatants -- soldiers from six nations and several rebel groups -- who do not stop fighting.
Military tribunals were meant to address the actions of unlawful enemy combatants, including soldiers who massacre civilians, abuse the flag of truce or commit acts of sabotage while not in uniform.
#Respect and care is required for non-combatants, wounded soldiers and prisoners.
This shrine of the darkest period of the country's recent History has been made from donations given by former Blue Division's combatants (Spanish soldiers who fought in the Nazi German invasion of Russia between 1941 to 1944) and from members of Franco's security apparatus and police.
Our village was all the time attacked by FDRL (armed combatants) These soldiers terrorized, killed, and raped people, and plundered houses, if I had power, I would kick them out of my country.
"It was dated 25 November". Mr. Gotovina's detention at the United Nations cellblock, at least for now, brings to a close his 30-year tumultuous career as a right-wing combatant and sometime soldier of fortune -- a life of risk and adventure on the margins of the law.
