Pentagon commits to do more to prevent civilian deaths in military operations
CNN
The US military has committed to doing more to prevent civilian deaths following the release of a damning report that found the Pentagon had failed to consistently identify, investigate and share lessons learned when civilians have been harmed in US military operations.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will implement a 90-day review of the military's handling of civilian casualty incidents and a subsequent 90-day implementation period to make changes to how the military handles them after the findings of a congressionally mandated RAND Corporation report was released. The Department of Defense received the report's findings in February, a senior US defense official said.
The review and proposed changes come after a series of recent and widely criticized civilian casualty incidents, including a botched drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 10 civilians. The report found that the department's use of "air campaigns," or air strikes, have "inherent problems for detecting civilian harm."