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5.10.4 Persons Rendered Unconscious or Otherwise Incapacitated by Wounds, Sickness,or Shipwreck. Persons who have been rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated bywounds, sickness, or shipwreck, such that they are no longer capable of fighting, are hors decombat. 268Those “rendered unconscious” does not include persons who simply fall asleep. Sleepingcombatants generally may be made the object of attack. 269Shipwrecked combatants include those who have been shipwrecked from any cause andincludes forced landings at sea by or from aircraft. 270Persons who have been incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck are in a helplessstate, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack. 271 In orderto receive protection as hors de combat, the person must be wholly disabled from fighting. 272 Onthe other hand, many combatants suffer from wounds and sickness, but nonetheless continue tofight and would not be protected. 273In many cases, the circumstances of combat may make it difficult to distinguish betweenpersons who have been incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck and those who continue268 Consider AP I art. 41(2) (“A person is hors de combat if: … (c) He has been rendered unconscious or isotherwise incapacitated by wounds or sickness, and therefore is incapable of defending himself; provided that in anyof these cases he abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape.”).269 For example, Judy G. Endicott, Raid on Libya: Operation ELDORADO CANYON, in SHORT OF WAR: MAJOR USAFCONTINGENCY OPERATIONS 1947–1997 (A. Timothy Warnock, Air Force Historical Research Agency ed., 2000)(describing Operation ELDORADO CANYON, in which the United States responded to the Berlin discotheque bombingby conducting air strikes on multiple Libyan targets—including two military barracks—in the early hours of April15, 1986).270 Refer to § 7.3.1.2 (Shipwrecked).271 GWS-SEA COMMENTARY 87 (“[I]t must be pointed out that the purpose of this provision [i.e., the first paragraphof Article 12 of the GWS-Sea], and indeed of the whole Convention, is to protect wounded, sick and shipwreckedpersons who, if they were not in this helpless state, could rightfully be attacked.”).272 Cf. LIEBER CODE art. 71 (“Whoever intentionally inflicts additional wounds on an enemy already whollydisabled, or kills such an enemy, or who orders or encourages soldiers to do so, shall suffer death, if duly convicted,whether he belongs to the Army of the United States, or is an enemy captured after having committed hismisdeed.”).273 GWS COMMENTARY 136 footnote 1 (“Cases are frequent of soldiers who have heroically continued to fight inspite of serious wounds. It goes without saying that in so doing they renounce any claim to protection under theConvention.”).235