Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, confirmed in a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on 2 March 2026, that America will no longer be constrained by “stupid rules of engagement.” He also promised “no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.” As the war with Iran escalates, the tough-talking and hard-hitting cabinet secretary appears to be drawing the US further into a no-holds-barred, all-out attack on its mortal enemy.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff issued the first Standing Rules of Engagement (SROE) in 1994, which were updated in 2000 and again in June 2005 (CJCSI 3121.01B). The SROE define how the US engages with its enemies at times of military conflict and “apply to all US forces responding to military attacks within the US, to all military operations outside the US, and to domestic support operations.” The Secretary of War (previously the Secretary of Defence) approves the SROE and can also approve new Rules of Engagement (ROE) that supersede existing SROE.
Ideally, ROE should be aligned with strategic goals and with both the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC; aka Law of War) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). But, at times, ROE can be considered unduly restrictive and thus subject to change as felt necessary, depending on the aims, nature, and location of a conflict. Military necessity is therefore being invoked to avoid “tactical paralysis” in the all-out war against Iran. This has led to situations in which the SROE, LOAC, and IHL appear to have been potentially compromised, such as in the two scenarios discussed below.
On 28 February, the first day of the conflict, the Shajareh Tayebeh (“the good tree”) primary school, a girls’ school in the city of Minab in Hormozgan province, was hit. A “double-tap” strike, or two strikes in close succession, killed 165 schoolgirls (mostly aged between seven and 12) and school staff members. ROE normally require combatants to distinguish between civilian infrastructure and military targets. IHL specifically protects children, schools, and school staff, during armed conflict. UNESCO thus condemned the attack on the school in Minab, posting on 1 March on X that “attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education.
On 4 March, a Los-Angeles-class, nuclear-powered, fast-attack US submarine sunk an Iranian Moudge-class frigate, the IRIS (Islamic Republic of Iran Ship) Dena, with a single Mark 48 torpedo. At the time, the frigate was in international waters, away from the theatre of conflict, 40 nautical miles south of Galle (Sri Lanka) in the Indian Ocean. The IRIS Dena was outside Sri Lanka’s 12-nautical-mile Territorial Sea Limit, but within its 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Hegseth described the sinking as a “quiet death.” The frigate was returning to Iran after participating in the Indian Navy’s Exercise MILAN-an international fleet review between 18 and 25 February at Vishakhapatnam on the eastern coast of India, in which 74 nations participated, including the US. IRIS Dena, the first enemy ship to be torpedoed by a US submarine since the Second War, sunk with the loss of at least 87 lives. The US Navy is said not to have attempted to rescue any survivors, although 32 sailors were taken ashore from the warship by the Sri Lankan navy. Whether the IRIS Dena were to be considered a legitimate military target under the international law of naval warfare or otherwise, the Second Geneva Convention of 1949 still requires all parties engaged in maritime combat to search for and collect the shipwrecked, wounded, and sick as necessary.
The conflict in the Middle East has turned nasty. The combatants are intent on inflicting maximum harm on each other in a mutually destructive war. As they say, “All is fair in love and war.” With so many contradictory forecasts from various strategists who have a much deeper knowledge of the matter, who can predict exactly how things may turn out? In the interim, the Law of War and the Rules of Engagement will continue to be rewritten on an ad hoc basis, with unfortunate results, until hostilities eventually cease at some indeterminate time in the future.
Ashis Banerjee