The US military leadership has hidden data on the large number of civilian casualties, including children, in air strikes in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few years. The relevant information is contained in the material of The New York Times, published on Saturday, December 18.
At the disposal of the newspaper were over 1.3 thousand internal documents of the Pentagon. It follows from them that the leadership of the department did not carry out full-fledged investigations of such incidents, and also did not take measures to prevent them in the future.
So, according to official statistics, when striking militants of the “Islamic State” (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in the Russian Federation) in Syria and Iraq since 2014, 1,417 civilians have died, another 188 civilians have died in Afghanistan since 2018.
But the journalists of the edition, after analyzing the materials they have, declare that “hundreds of victims” were not taken into account, and it is now impossible to establish their exact number.
In response to an NYT inquiry, US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban said that “even with the best technology in the world, errors occur due to incomplete information or misinterpretation.” He added that if the airstrike was carried out with the most complete information, and all the tasks were completed, then civilian casualties are not a reason for disciplinary action.
On December 13, The New York Times reported that the US Department of Defense had decided not to punish American troops for the deaths of 10 civilians, including seven children, in an airstrike on Kabul. According to the newspaper, the Pentagon leadership during the investigation did not find violations of the law during the bombing of the Afghan capital. At the same time, the department called the incident a tragic mistake.
On August 29, in Kabul, US drones launched strikes over ISIS threats. The blow fell on a car, which was believed to pose a danger to the airport in the Afghan capital. Then the Pentagon announced that there were no civilian casualties. However, later it turned out that the rocket hit a residential building in the Hajj Bagra area and there are children among the dead.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
