This is a good time to mention a couple of things for clarity.
The Scan Eagle video is only one of three surveillance videos shot that day. Once everything has been released, we'll have an even surer sense of everything that happened in Haditha.
The images posted here are of much lower quality than the original. Still, particularly in wide angle shots, it is hard to make out details.
Lastly, red markings on the images (arrows, circles, etc.) were created by Nat--they are not in the original.
Making sense of the convoy pictures was especially laborious. I feel pretty confident we got it right but when Nat checks in later, we'll go over it all again.
I don't think there is an image of the entire convoy that shows more than a lot of blobs. Again, the operator in real-time would have had a much better view of the scene than we can duplicate with stills online.
These are good shots that you guys have pulled out of the video. My point was the placement of the three vehicles in the convoy may indicate the taxi was surrounded by all three. According to Wuterich's statement
here
...."The white, four door sedan was parked on the side of the road within 100 m of the IED attack, and within the security parameters of our convoy. I heard yelling mostly from the west where Cpl De La Cruz was shouting in broken Arabic and using expletives to the military aged males who occupied the white car.
This places Dela Cruz west of Wuterich and thus closer to the taxi. If Dela Cruz's is in vehicle 2 as indicated in Vanity Fair Rules of Engagement, this would make sense.
His weapon was at the ready, as it should have been. They were not complying and in fact were starting to run in the opposite direction to the south away from where Cpl Dela Cruz was approaching them. I took a knee in the road and fired. Engaging was the only choice. The threat had to be neutralized. Vehicle Borne IEDs were a serious threat and would have incapacitated our squad making us combat ineffective.
If Wuterich is in vehicle 3 as shown in one of your screen captures above, he is on the same side of the road as the taxi, but farther from the taxi. Then we have this about Salinas.
I don't remember anyone else firing at the same time I was, although at a squad debrief later on I learned that Cpl Dela Cruz had engaged the men at the car at the same time as I did and Cpl Salinas reported that he had opened fire, as well. After I watched the military aged males fall to the ground, Cpl De La Cruz advanced on them and I saw him fire at the bodies as they lay before I turned to make my way to the casualties. That is when I started hearing small arms fire from the south.
That's why I asked where vehicle 1 was. If Salinas was west of the taxi in vehicle 1, then the three shooters, Salinas, Dela Cruz, and Wuterich pretty much had a triangulated shooting position on the taxi. Who killed the men, then? I don't think anyone really knows.