Status: 19.12.2021 4:18 a.m.
In the case of drone strikes in the Middle East, US forces apparently negligently accept the devastating consequences for civilians. This is reported by the “New York Times”. Kills are often “hasty” or “imprecise”.
The US has been using drones to target enemies in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq for years. But the attacks are often not as targeted as they are portrayed. This is the result of research by the “New York Times”. The newspaper evaluated more than 1,300 confidential government documents. According to their report, the papers refute the government’s account of a “precision strike” war against jihadists.
“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.
NYT: Pentagon numbers “clearly understated”
In five years, the US Army flew more than 50,000 air strikes in the three countries. 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 numbers admitted by the Pentagon were “clearly understated”.
Accordingly, the US armed forces were often wrong in their assessments of the targets of air strikes. People who ran to a bombed site were seen as fighters for the Islamic State group and not as helpers. “Simple motorcyclists” were identified as riding “in formation”, which was interpreted as a “sign” of an impending attack.
US military: “Regret any loss of innocent life”
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 were due to them.
A spokesman for 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 harm”. It investigates every “credible” case. “We regret every loss of an innocent life”.
Allegations from NGOs
The non-governmental organization Airwars accuses the United States of having killed at least 22,000 civilians in US air strikes in the so-called war on terror since 2001. In Afghanistan there have been more than 4,800 so far.
“You have to take into account that civilian casualties are an integral part of US air strikes. That has been the case in Afghanistan and around the world for 20 years – both inside and outside of armed conflict,” said Annie Shiel of the human rights organization Center for Civilians in conflict areas (CIVIC).