 Months before the Army 's private correspondence with the church group , Associated Press reporters , researching those same 1950 operational records , found orders to shoot South Korean civilians . The U.S.-based news agency , which reported the rejection of the survivors ' claim in April 1998 , had begun investigating the No Gun Ri allegations earlier that year , trying to identify Army units possibly involved , and to track down their ex @-@ soldiers . On Sept . 29 , 1999 , after a year of internal struggle over releasing the article , the AP published its investigative report on the massacre , based on the accounts of 24 No Gun Ri survivors , corroborated by a dozen 7th Cavalry Regiment veterans . " We just annihilated them , " it quoted former 7th Cavalry machine gunner Norman Tinkler as saying . The journalists ' research into declassified military documents at the U.S. National Archives uncovered recorded instructions in late July 1950 that front @-@ line units shoot South Korean refugees approaching their positions . A liaison officer of the sister 8th Cavalry Regiment had relayed word to his unit from 1st Cavalry Division headquarters to fire on refugees trying to cross U.S. front lines . Major General William B. Kean of the neighboring 25th Infantry Division advised that any civilians found in areas supposed to be cleared by police should be considered enemies and " treated accordingly , " an order relayed by his staff as " considered as unfriendly and shot . " On the day the No Gun Ri killings began , the Eighth Army ordered all units to stop refugees from crossing their lines . In subsequent articles , the AP reported that many more South Korean civilians were killed when the U.S. military blew up two Naktong River bridges packed with refugees on Aug. 4 , 1950 , and when other refugee columns were strafed by U.S. aircraft in the war 's first months . 
