Of course it's not far-fetched. If several folks were shooting at my plane - even if it were with rifle fire - I'd be on the horn in half a sec for authorization to return fire.

Their main mistake was not getting proper authorization to engage. (even though they likely had a broad leeway)
The celebrants main mistake was being insane enough to fire at US aircraft patrolling a war zone.

It's not like there was a big church and steeple and a bunch of folks in tuxedos and gowns.

A crowd of folks, several firing weapons at you, looks like a pocket of Al qaida holdouts - especially from the air.

The REAL problem no one is addressing in the news - is the previous release of hundreds, if not thousands of Al qaida sympathetic residents/soldiers from Pakistan where they were being held as they fled.

Now they are back and so you have ragtag bands of 20 here, 50 there, another 30 over in the next village. With a habit of burying their weapons caches - they can easily return to cause trouble later. If they were in the US - these folks would at the least be monitored and tailed for awhile to ensure they do not regather into cliques of "midnight-rebels"

Just a nuisance perhaps, but any armed enemy can be a deadly nuisance.

SDAI-Tech1