 After years of dismissing the allegations , in its report , the Army acknowledged that the U.S. military had killed " an unknown number " of South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri with " small @-@ arms fire , artillery and mortar fire , and strafing . " But it held that no orders were issued to fire on the civilians , and that the shootings were the result of hostile fire from among the refugees , or was firing meant to control them . At another point , it suggested that soldiers may have " misunderstood " the Eighth Army 's stop @-@ refugees order to mean they could be shot . At the same time , it described the deaths as " an unfortunate tragedy inherent to war and not a deliberate killing . " The Army report dismissed the testimony of soldiers who spoke of orders to shoot at No Gun Ri because , it said , none could remember the wording , the originating officer 's name , or having received the order directly himself . 
