US military admits to killing 23 civilians worldwide in 2020

US army soldiers stand in formation during a military tactical training exercise

The US military has admitted responsibility for unintentionally killing 23 civilians in foreign war zones in 2020, far below figures compiled by non-governmental agencies. The US Department of Defence (DoD) ‘assesses that there were approximately 23 civilians killed and approximately 10 civilians injured during 2020 as a result of US military operations,’ the document said, which is part of an annual report required by Congress since 2018. Most of the civilian casualties were in Afghanistan, where the Pentagon said it was responsible for 20 deaths, while the remaining three civilian deaths were distributed as one in Somalia in February, one in Iraq in March, and one in undisclosed location. The report also acknowledged that 12 additional incidents in 2017 and 2018, which left at least 65 civilians killed and 22 others injured, ‘were inadvertently not reported in the past.’