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5.5.3 Assessing Information in Conducting Attacks. Persons who plan, authorize, ormake other decisions in conducting attacks must make the judgments required by the law of warin good faith and on the basis of information available to them at the time. 72 For example, acommander must, on the basis of available information, determine in good faith that a target is amilitary objective before authorizing an attack. Similarly, the expected incidental damage tocivilians or civilian objects must be assessed in good faith, given the information available to thecommander at the time.In making the judgments that are required by the law of war rules governing attacks,persons may rely on information obtained from other sources, including human intelligence orother sources of information. 73 For example, in a long-distance attack, a commander may relyon information obtained from aerial reconnaissance and intelligence units in determiningwhether to conduct an attack. 745.5.3.1 Heightened Identification Requirements in Conducting Attacks. Althoughdoing so would exceed the requirements of the law of war, applying heightened standards ofidentification may be a policy choice to reduce the risk of incidental harm in conducting anattack. 7572 Refer to § 5.4 (Assessing Information Under the Law of War).73 ICTY, Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing CampaignAgainst the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 84 (Jun. 13, 2000) (“The building hit was clearly a civilian object andnot a legitimate military objective. … It is the opinion of the committee … that it is inappropriate to attempt toassign criminal responsibility for the incident to senior leaders because they were provided with wrong informationby officials of another agency.”).74 ICRC AP COMMENTARY 681 (2195) (“In the case of long-distance attacks, information will be obtained inparticular from aerial reconnaissance and from intelligence units, which will of course attempt to gather informationabout enemy military objectives by various means.”).75 For example, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Fact Sheet: U.S. Policy Standards and Proceduresfor the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities, May23, 2013 (In counterterrorism operations, “lethal force will be used outside areas of active hostilities only when thefollowing preconditions are met: … Third, the following criteria must be met before lethal action may be taken: 1)Near certainty that the terrorist target is present; 2) Near certainty that non-combatants will not be injured orkilled;”); Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) Rules of Engagement (ROE) Card, Iraq (2003),reprinted in CENTER FOR LAW AND MILITARY OPERATIONS, THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL’S LEGAL CENTER &SCHOOL, U.S. ARMY, I LEGAL LESSONS LEARNED FROM AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ: MAJOR COMBAT OPERATIONS(11 SEPTEMBER 2001 - 1 MAY 2003) 314 (2004) (“1. On order, enemy military and paramilitary forces are declaredhostile and may be attacked subject to the following instructions: a. Positive Identification (PID) is required prior toengagement. PID is a reasonable certainty that the proposed target is a legitimate military target. If no PID, contactyour next higher commander for decision.”); FINAL REPORT ON THE PERSIAN GULF WAR 177 (“Attack proceduresspecified that if the pilot could not positively identify his target or was not confident the weapon would guideproperly (because of clouds, for example), he could not deliver that weapon. Several attack sorties were forced toreturn with their bombs for this reason.”); U.S. MILITARY ASSISTANCE COMMAND VIET-NAM DIRECTIVE 525-13,Military Operations: Rules of Engagement for the Employment of Firepower in the Republic of Vietnam, 6a (May1971), reprinted in 1975 DIGEST OF UNITED STATES PRACTICE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW 814, 815 (“All possiblemeans will be employed to limit the risk to the lives and property of friendly forces and civilians. In this respect, atarget must be clearly identified as hostile prior to making a decision to place fire on it.”) (“All possible means willbe employed to limit the risk to the lives and property of friendly forces and civilians. In this respect, a target mustbe clearly identified as hostile prior to making a decision to place fire on it.”).196