"Innocent" in English has two meanings, and like many such words, it's a gift to propagandists because it can be used in one sense while subliminaly evoking the other.

a) Not guilty of a crime or other misdeed.

b) Sinless, virtuous, unspoilt. Also tends, by implication, to suggest childish weakness.

So when, for instance, we are asked to protect "innocent civilians" in Libya, the literal meaning of the adjective is that they are not guilty of having taken part in the war (therefore should not be caught up in it.) But the word is, strictly speaking, redundant - civilians, by definition, excludes combatants - and its tautologous use is intended to evoke subliminal associations of virtue and weakness to suggest that these people are exceptionally worthy of help.