Pete Hegseth told US soldiers in Iraq to ignore legal advice on rules of engagement

Defense secretary shares anecdote in The War on Warriors and rails against rules and regulations' governing war

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, told soldiers under his command in Iraq to ignore legal advice about when they were permitted to kill enemy combatants under their rules of engagement.

The anecdote is contained in a book Hegseth wrote last year in which he also repeatedly railed against the constraints placed on American warfighters" by the laws of war and the Geneva conventions.