Although it is commonly believed that assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of western academics coming to believe that drug-taking was not the key feature behind the name.

The report found that all of those shot were unarmed, and that the killings were both " unjustified and unjustifiable.

In 1975, similar killings in the small town of Moca, were attributed to El Vampiro de Moca ( The Vampire of Moca ).

Initially, it was suspected that the killings were committed by a Satanic cult ; later more killings were reported around the island, and many farms reported loss of animal life.

Probably after the killings in the main temple, there were few Aztec captains available to take the position.

The number of murders or unlawful killings the Contras were involved in, was estimated at around 500.

As a consequence of oppression, forced labor, hunger, disease, and mass killings, by 1535, only 60, 000 were still alive.

The initial, formal killings of the Final Solution were undertaken by the SS Einsatzgruppen ( Task Forces ) death squads who followed the Wehrmacht during the Operation Barbarossa invasion of the USSR in June 1941.

The area had a Protestant and Unionist majority and IRA actions were responded to with reprisals against the Catholic population, including killings ( such as the McMahon Murders ) and the burning of many homes – as on Belfast's Bloody Sunday.

However, when several protesters were shot and killed by police in Mitchelstown in 1887, the findings of a common inquest were quashed because the killings had taken place at different times and in different places.

Moi won elections in 1992 and 1997, which were overshadowed by political killings on both sides.

Many of the killings in the Rwandan Genocide were performed with machetes, and they were the primary weapon used by the Interahamwe militias there.

The Republic of Turkey does not deny the Ottoman Armenian casualties, but denies they were genocide, specifically claiming that said deaths were consequence of war, and also were criminal killings neither approved nor committed by the Ottoman Empire.

In Colombian history and culture, the killings are known as La Violencia ( The Violence, 1948 – 58 ); most of the people killed were peasants and laborers in rural Colombia.

The killings were questioned by many and condemned by many others, and led the United States to increase pressure on the Pastrana administration to crack down on FARC guerrillas.

The killings were almost universally condemned, and seriously harmed public perceptions of FARC.

Because two bodies were not present, many people believed that two Romanov children escaped the killings.

In July 2006 the Center for World Indigenous Studies reported that government sanctioned killings were taking place in the southeastern city of Onitsha, because of a shoot-to-kill policy directed toward Biafran loyalists, particularly members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra ( MASSOB ).

Once re-equipped, Kampfgruppe Peiper rejoined the battle, and other killings of POWs were reported on December 31, 1944, in Lutrebois, and between January 10 and 13, 1945, in Petit Thier.

An article in People's Daily reported that " Nine people from Xi ' an City in China made news when they ' jointly wrote to local media asking for euthanasia, or mercy killings '".

There was also widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence were reported.

At the end of January 1999, the United States was reported to have leaked telephone intercepts that were said to prove the role of the Yugoslav government in the killings.

Questioned about the article by Anderson Cooper of CNN during a trip to Africa, United States President Barack Obama was reported to have " ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.

There have been numerous reported cases of such behaviour in conflicts, such as fighters using white flags as a ruse to approach and attack enemies, or killings of fighters attempting to surrender by carrying white flags.

Mass killings of Tasmanian Aborigines were reported as having occurred as part of the Black War in Van Diemen's Land.

During Alexandre's acting presidency, Amnesty International reported " excessive use of force by police officers ", extrajudicial executions, a lack of investigations into these, escalation of " unlawful killings and kidnappings by illegal armed groups ", failure of officials to prevent and punish violence against women, dysfunctionality of the justice system, and forty or more people imprisoned without charge or trial.

In the post – civil war period, the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico ( Historical Clarification Commission, CEH ) reported and classified such counterinsurgency killings of the Guatemalan civil populace as genocide.

HRW reported that some military officers in Paris had talked openly of “ breaking the back of the RPF .” It remains that there were no documented large-scale killings in Zone Turquoise once it was established.

He worked with Henning von Tresckow and Fabian von Schlabrendorff to reduce the atrocities committed, and often massaged the numbers reported to his superiors ( including one claim that his task force was responsible for more than 45, 000 killings ).

A Washington Post article, c. 1989, reported that a ' secret ' ruling of the U. S. Department of State's Office of Legal Advisor interpreted Ford's Executive Order to ban only intentional killings of foreign leaders, thus clearing the way for ' accidental ' killings of foreign leaders -- for example, during the confusion of a coup or invasion.

When such killings are reported, forensic evidence has pointed to natural predators, such as coyotes, eagles, or raptors, as the likely cause.

Shortly after the killings, the Nicaraguan national guard reported that they had arrested Corporal Lorenzo Brenes (" Brenis " in some reports ), the corporal responsible for Stewart's murder, and that he would be " brought before legal officers ".

On October 24, 1868 Baker and his gang were reported to have been involved in the killings of Major P. J.

It is reported in Turkish sources that some Armenian troops serving in the Russian army carried out revenge killings in the area of Erzurum, after having witnessed the destruction that had been wrought against the Armenian population.

During the 1994 violence, heavily political killings were reported between MQM, MQM factions, and Sindhi nationalist groups.

He was serving as UN Secretary-General when the killings occurred 4 years later.

Unfortunately, in the face of the mayhem in Rwanda and this diplomatic watering down of UNAMIR's mandate, many UN member states delayed contributing personnel for some time, until the main wave of killings ceased.

In 2000, the United Nations opened an investigation into vigilante killings of migrants crossing Mexico's border with the USA, dispatching a senior UN investigator to the border country close to where Sam Blackwood, a 74-year-old rancher, was charged with killing Eusebio de Haro, an unarmed Mexican he tried to subdue for the border patrol and fatally shot in the back of the thigh after pursuing him a quarter mile down the road in his truck.

Most of these killings occurred during " acts of resistance ," the UN report commented.

* Haiti's children die in UN crossfire, article by the Observer about MINUSTAH civilian killings

These killings were ordered by the officers from Sondergruppe R. Regarding the Femegerichte murders, Ossietzky wrote: " Lieutenant Schulz ( charged with the murder of informers against the Black Reichswehr ) did nothing but carry out the orders given him, and that certainly Colonel von Bock, and probably Colonel von Schleicher and General Seeckt, should be sitting in the dock beside him ".

Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Šainović and Interior Ministry General Sreten Lukić reportedly expressed concern about reaction to the Račak assault and discussed how to make the killings at Račak appear to be the result of combat between government troops and KLA rebels.

The United Nations also condemned the killings, with the Security Council and Secretary General describing them on January 31 as a massacre perpetrated by Yugoslav security forces.

On 28 October 2009, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, presented a report to the Third Committee ( social, humanitarian and cultural ) of the General Assembly arguing that the use of unmanned combat air vehicles for targeted killings should be regarded as a breach of international law unless the United States can demonstrate appropriate precautions and accountability mechanisms are in place.

These killings were ordered by the officers from Sondergruppe R. Regarding the Femegerichte murders, Carl von Ossietzky wrote: " Lieutenant Schulz ( charged with the murder of informers against the " Black Reichswehr ") did nothing but carry out the orders given him, and that certainly Colonel von Bock, and probably Colonel von Schleicher and General Seeckt, should be sitting in the dock beside him ".

On German television, retired General Robert Gard of the US Army stated that the killings were, in his opinion, " inexcusable murders ".

These killings were ordered by the officers from Sondergruppe R. Regarding the Femegerichte murders, Carl von Ossietzky wrote: " Lieutenant Schulz ( charged with the murder of informers against the " Black Reichswehr ") did nothing but carry out the orders given him, and that certainly Colonel von Bock, and probably Colonel von Schleicher and General Seeckt, should be sitting in the dock beside him ".

In 1965, the group took sides with the General Suharto-led army and was heavily involved in the mass killings of Indonesian communists.

General Montcalm, shocked by the behavior, was eventually able to prevent further killings, although he claimed it would " cost the King eight or ten thousand livres in presents.

The new governor, General Mitchell Lambertsen, demanded the surrender of those who carried out the Whitman mission killings.

The memory of the killings influenced the actions of British military leaders, especially those of British General Jeffery Amherst, for the remainder of the war.

In its jacket, the book promises that it has " revealed " issues like who killed Mujib ( the first prime minister of Bangladesh ), who was responsible for the jail killings in Bangladesh, and how General Zia was assassinated.