I am absolutely positive the man or woman flying that plane is a very smart, very decent human being who had good reason to do what they did, and is completely devastated by what has happened. There is no doubt in my mind about that.

I am sure the ROEs allow a unit being fired upon to return fire.
This would explain the rationale behind the bombing, and be a very, very good explanation. Perfect explanation. I believe, in the absence of something I haven't seen the pilot has a good excuse. (I have to wonder what color the tracers were, not that it couldn't be captured ammunition, and how they determined for sure the fire was directed upward.)

My main concern is that the "powers that be" have had ample warning there are problems in this part of the world with the identification of targets. Until allied ground troops were put in for target identification, they had a lot of problems. I believe they should have been able to alter the ROEs for aircraft in areas with an allied presence to require positive verification.

In the buildings, tents or trailers where that is done I doubt it's that foggy. I would think they could keep track of the allied, at least English-speaking, forces. The poor damned pilot seems to be a victim, too, of some systemic procedural problems.

Arf