"K.I.A." redirects here. For other uses of this acronym, seeKIA (disambiguation).
Killed in action (KIA) is acasualty classification generally used bymilitaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action.[1] TheUnited States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA did not need to have fired their weapons, but only to have been killed due to a hostile attack. KIAs include those killed byfriendly fire during combat, but not from incidents such as accidental vehicle crashes, murder, or other non-hostile events orterrorism.[2] KIA can be applied both to front-line combat troops and naval, air, and support forces.
Furthermore, the termdied of wounds (DOW) is used to denote personnel who reached a medical treatment facility before dying.[3] The categorydied of wounds received in action (DWRIA) is also used for combat–related casualties which occur after medical evacuation.[4]
PKIA meanspresumed killed in action. This term is used when personnel are lost in battle, initially listedmissing in action (MIA), but after not being found, are later presumed to have not survived.[5] This is typical of naval battles or engagements on other hostile environments where recovering bodies is difficult. A vast number of soldiers killed in action went unidentified inWorld War I, likeJohn Kipling, the son of British poetRudyard Kipling, prompting the formation of theCommonwealth War Graves Commission.[6]
NATO defines killed in action or a battle casualty as a combatant who is killed outright or who dies as a result of wounds or other injuries before reaching a medical treatment facility or help from comrades.[7]
