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This was a common misconception that was discussed when I attended a warfighting school in Switzerland years ago.

Carrying the guns does not necessarily make it a combatant vessel, unless it was carrying ordnance for said weapons. If that is the case, then yes, it is considered a combatant.

If a frigate is merely ferrying from a neutral entity back home, without ordnance, there are very, very specific procedures per the Geneva Conventions that absolutely must be followed; any deviation makes the frigate fair game. This means diplomatic declarations, pre-approved routes & timing, ship guns locked at certain angles and other specific non-belligerent postures.

I asked some favors of some intel types I know who are still in; they're trying to get info my way what the posture of the Mena was before getting sodomized by the Forces of Satan.

I would not be surprised in the least if ordnance gets conveniently 'found' in the scuttled wreckage.

So, if the ship met the standard of 'combatant', then at least the submarine commander is off the hook.

But, if the Mena was legitimately non-belligerent, a war crime was committed.

Then again, laws & regulations run off of jews like water off a raincoat. Just ask a Palestinian....or the crew of the USS Liberty.
It's not even just "slimy", lots of things are slimy, but this unravels any hope of a Heroic Warrior narrative for US fighters. This is like one of those key early milestones in the process of losing a war.

But then if Iran says no peace until the US withdraws from the middle east, then losing the war means losing the gulf, which probably means losing the empire.

So it's a war that they can't position themselves to win and can't afford to lose.
RMS Lusitania. A luxury liner requisitioned by the Admiralty. On the official list of armed merchant carriers. Carrying 4.2 million rifle rounds, 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells, and 18 cases of non-explosive fuses. And Lord knows what else. In crates "dubiously marked cheese, butter and oysters".

Passengers didn't drown because of a single torpedo, the secondary explosion made that happen. And the Brits dropped depth charges on it in WWII. ZOG keeps breaking the rules they expect everyone else to abide by.
U. S. Navy vet here.
Warships do not disarm for exercises. The only time I participated in offloading weapons was prior to going into drydock for a year-long overhaul. Disarming is a huge event.
Even then, we only offloaded torpedos and missiles. We spent a full day firing the 5" big gun at a range because it's damn near impossible to offload that many shells manually.