Pentagon downplays civilian deaths from US strikes
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According to the New York Times, the civilian death toll caused by US airstrikes in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan is a lot higher than that reported or documented.
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Reports of civilian casualties were often dismissed because surveillance footage was too brief.
Thousands of civilians, including children, were murdered by US airstrikes in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, according to The New York Times, which were carried out with imprecise targeting and "deeply flawed intelligence."
The newspaper has studied 1,311 documents from a hidden Pentagon archive, concluding that the civilian death toll was a lot higher than the 1,417 civilian deaths reported by the US military in Iraq and Syria and the 188 deaths reported in Afghanistan.
Reports of civilian casualties were often dismissed because surveillance footage was too brief, The New York Times said on Saturday. Interviews with surviving residents and current and former US officials revealed that the US military made little effort to identify patterns of failure, with a lack of any public assessments that included a finding of wrongdoing.
Earlier this month, The New York Times had reported that a secret US strike cell called Talon Anvil was responsible for civilian casualties in Syria resulting from airstrikes.
NYT: US military unit hides civilian casualties in Syria
The New York Times also revealed in a lengthy investigation that a top-secret US combat cell launched tens of thousands of bombs and missiles against the ISIS terrorist organization in Syria, disclosing that this shadowy force, however, exceeded guarantees and repeatedly killed civilians, according to the testimonies of several current military personnel and former US intelligence officials.
The newspaper revealed that the Talon Anvil unit worked in three shifts around the clock between 2014 and 2019, identifying targets for the US air force to bomb, including convoys, car bombs, command centers, and teams of enemy militants.
However, people who worked with this cell say that in its rush to destroy enemies, the cell circumvented the rules of protecting non-combatants and alarmed its military and CIA partners by killing people who had no part in the conflict, such as farmers trying to harvest crops, children on the streets, and villagers seeking shelter in buildings.
The US not to punish troops over deadly Kabul airstrike
The Pentagon, in its part, had revealed that no US troops or officials would face disciplinary action for the August drone strike in Kabul that brutally took the lives of 10 civilians, seven of which were children.
US Department of Defense Spokesperson John Kirby and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had received a high-level review of the strike that made no recommendation of accountability.
"There was not a strong enough case to be made for personal accountability," the former claimed.
The drone strike, which killed innocent civilians on August 29, took place in the final days of the US-led evacuation of Kabul after the Taliban took over the country.
