The Pentagon: Mistakes happen even with the best technologies in the world
Thousands of civilians were killed in US drone strikes
The Pentagon acknowledged that unavoidable mistakes had occurred.
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Relatives and neighbors of an Afghan family that was bombed and 10 of its members were killed by mistake watching the devastation.
About "The New York Times"
File photo of the victims of the American raid on the home of the Afghan family in Kabul.
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From faulty intelligence to inevitable collateral damage and the deaths of thousands of civilians, The New York Times published a harsh investigation yesterday into drone strikes, the US military's preferred method since 2014 in its war against militant groups in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Based on 1,300 reports of the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) on incidents that resulted in civilian casualties, obtained by the American daily newspaper under the Departmental Transparency Act, this investigation constitutes a blow to the image of a “clean war” conducted with “precision strikes”, as the US military asserts. continuously.
failed information
The New York Times said that "the US air war was marred by failed intelligence, hasty and inaccurate operations to launch missiles, and the killing of thousands of civilians, including a large number of children."
"No report indicated an error or disciplinary penalty," she added.
Instead of promises of transparency during the era of former US President Barack Obama, who was the first US president to resort to drone strikes to avoid the killing of American soldiers, there was a “blackout and impunity,” according to the daily newspaper, which had to file a number of lawsuits against the Pentagon, And the US Army Central Command (Centcom) to obtain these documents.
In five years, the US military has conducted more than 50,000 air strikes in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
It has admitted that 1,417 civilians have been mistakenly killed in air strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014. The official death toll in Afghanistan is 188 civilians since 2018.
In this investigation, which took months, the newspaper analyzed the documents it obtained, verified the facts on the ground, and checked official information about more than 100 sites that were bombed.
Many of the aforementioned facts were known before, but the investigation revealed that the number of civilian casualties admitted by the Pentagon was "clearly understated."
The documents reveal that civilians were often killed because of a tendency to reach conclusions that applied what one believed to be likely, according to the newspaper.
Verification errors
The newspaper pointed out that people running towards a bombed site were considered ISIS fighters, not rescuers.
Simple motorcyclists also considered that they were moving in a "formation", which indicated an imminent attack.
According to US Defense Department documents, only 4% of errors in identifying the enemy resulted in civilian casualties.
However, the field investigation conducted by the newspaper indicates that the rate of these accidents is 17%, during which one third of the civilian deaths and injuries occurred.
Cultural factors also had a significant impact. The American military considered that there were “no civilians” in a house they were watching during one of the days of Ramadan, while several families were sleeping during the day inside during the fasting month to take shelter from the heat.
In most cases, poor photographs or insufficient surveillance time contributed to strikes that resulted in civilian casualties.
It also curbed investigation attempts.
The US military confirmed the "credibility" of 216 out of 1,311 cases studied by the newspaper.
Reports of civilian casualties were rejected because the videos did not show bodies under the rubble or because they were not long enough to draw conclusions.
Among the reported facts, strikes were carried out by US special forces on July 19, 2016, targeting what were believed to be three areas in northern Syria used by ISIS to prepare for its attacks.
But the strikes killed 120 farmers and villagers.
Inevitable side effects
In another example, a strike was carried out in November 2015 in the Ramadi region of Iraq after a man was spotted dragging an "unidentified heavy object" to an ISIS position.
In a report prepared after a review, it was found that the object was a child who was killed in an airstrike.
Finally, the United States had to retract its assertion that a car destroyed by a drone on a Kabul street in August was loaded with bombs.
It was later revealed that the victims of the strike were 10 members of one family.
The report indicates that many civilians who were injured in US strikes and survived suffer disabilities that require costly treatment, and that less than 12 of them have received financial compensation.
The New York Times quoted a spokesman for the US Central Command, Bill Urban, as saying that "even with the best technologies in the world, mistakes happen, either because of wrong information or a wrong interpretation of the available information."
"We are doing our best to avoid harm, investigate all credible cases, and regret every loss of innocent life," he added.
The newspaper considered that "what appears at the end of looking at more than 5,400 pages of documents is an institution that accepts that collateral damage is inevitable."
• The New York Times said that "the US air war was marred by failed intelligence, hasty and inaccurate operations to launch missiles, and the killing of thousands of civilians, including a large number of children."
• According to US Defense Department documents, only 4% of errors in identifying the enemy resulted in civilian casualties. However, the field investigation conducted by the newspaper indicates that the rate of these accidents is 17%, during which one third of the civilian deaths and injuries occurred.
• The newspaper pointed out that people running towards a bombed site were considered ISIS fighters, not rescuers. Simple motorcyclists also considered that they were moving in a "formation", which indicates an imminent attack.
"The most accurate air campaign in history"
The United States' reliance on air strikes in the Middle East accelerated dramatically in the final years of former President Barack Obama's tenure, as public support for the endless ground wars waned.
Obama described the new approach based on the use of drones as "the most accurate air campaign in history" and said it was able to keep the number of civilian deaths to a minimum.
Obama is the first US president to legalize large-scale drone strikes. archival
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