Marking a foe for death, living with the consequences: Exactly what rules apply?

WASHINGTON - It was 1943. Across a battle theater of tiny, far-flung Pacific island chains and vast reaches of open ocean, U.S. forces were locked in desperate, bloody warfare with Japanese troops. And American military strategists had Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the surprise attack 16 months earlier on Pearl Harbor, in their sights.

In a precisely planned raid, the plane carrying Yamamoto, a twin-engine Mitsubishi bomber, was intercepted and shot down by U.S. fighters over the Solomon Islands, where the Imperial Japanese Navy admiral was conducting an inspection tour of Japanese forces. Accounts from the Japanese search-and-rescue team that made its way to the crash site said Yamamoto's body was found seated upright, still strapped in, clutching the hilt of a samurai-style sword.

Nearly 77 years later, a senior State Department official briefing reporters on President Trump's decision to order the targeted killing of a top Iranian military