According to a media report, the US negligently accepted the devastating consequences for the civilian population in its drone war in the Middle East. The New York Times reported on Saturday that a series of confidential government documents with more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties refuted the government’s account of a war with “precision strikes” against jihadists. Accordingly, numerous errors in air strikes result in thousands of civilian deaths.
“The American air war was marked by inadequate reconnaissance, hasty and inaccurate rocket launches and the deaths of thousands of civilians, including many children,” the newspaper reported. The transparency promises from the time of Barack Obama, who was the first US president to prefer drone strikes in order to save the lives of US soldiers, have been replaced by “opacity and impunity”. “Not a single report came to the conclusion that there was misconduct”.
The US Army has carried out more than 50,000 air strikes in the three countries in five years. She has admitted that she has accidentally killed 1,417 civilians in air strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014. In Afghanistan, the official number is 188 civilians killed since 2018. The newspaper’s research showed, however, that the figures admitted by the Pentagon were “clearly understated”.
Almost a third of civilian casualties due to mistakes
Accordingly, the US armed forces were often wrong in their assessments of the targets of air strikes. People who ran to a bombed place were seen as fighters of the group “Islamic State” and not as helpers. “Simple motorcyclists” were identified as riding “in formation”, which was interpreted as a “sign” of an imminent attack.
According to the Pentagon documents, misidentification only made up four percent of cases involving civilian victims. The field study carried out by the “Times” showed, however, that there were errors in 17 percent of the incidents investigated and that almost a third of the civilian deaths and injuries could be traced back to them.
Cultural ignorance also played a role. The US military ruled that “no civilians” were present in a house they were monitoring on a day of the fasting month of Ramadan, although several families slept there during the day to protect themselves from the heat.
Pentagon excuses
Poor image quality or too short an observation period also contributed to misjudgments when reviewing reports from civilian casualties. Of the 1,311 cases investigated by the New York Times, only 216 were classified as “credible” by the Pentagon. Reports of civilian casualties were rejected because the videos did not show any bodies in the rubble or because the footage was not long enough to allow conclusions to be drawn.
A spokesman for the Central Command told the newspaper that “even with the best technology in the world, mistakes happen, whether through incorrect information or misinterpretation of the information available.” The military is doing “everything to avoid damage”. It investigates every “credible” case. “We regret every loss of an innocent life”. (AFP)