All articles tagged with #civilian harm
Four months after a US Tomahawk strike hit a girls’ school in Minab, killing about 175 people, the Pentagon has offered little public explanation, fueling fears the investigation will be buried or heavily classified under Pete Hegseth’s push for looser civilian-harm oversight; Trump has given mixed signals, and congressional inquiries have stalled.
A Pentagon Inspector General report says funding and staffing cuts to civilian harm mitigation under War Secretary Pete Hegseth crippled the DoD’s ability to implement the 2022 CHMR-AP by FY2025, with 11 objectives and 133 implementing actions incomplete and the data-management platform discontinued, raising civilian-protection and readiness risks and drawing charges that the review whitewashes the program’s dismantling.
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Pete Hegseth defended expanded U.S. military action while critics accuse the Trump administration of unprecedented civilian harm across multiple theaters (Yemen, Iran, Caribbean, Pacific). The Intercept cites thousands of civilian deaths under Trump’s second term, including a contested Minab school strike, and calls for independent investigations and stronger civilian-harm safeguards as critics contend the administration undermines international humanitarian law.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Sen. Elizabeth Warren urge the firing of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the wake of reports that a US-aligned strike may have killed hundreds of Iranian schoolgirls, citing a Pentagon finding that the US was a highly likely culprit and arguing that Hegseth’s stance against civilian-harm safeguards and loosening of engagement rules helped shape a dangerous policy. Human rights groups condemn the attack as a possible war crime and call for independent investigation, as critics use the episode to attack the administration’s Iran strategy.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pressed EUCOM commander Gen. Grynkewich at a Senate hearing about a U.S. strike that hit a girls’ school in Iran, killing about 170 children, questioning the targeting process and civilian-harm protections; Grynkewich defended safeguards and commitment to minimizing civilian harm, while the Pentagon later admitted responsibility for the strike.
Israel's military acknowledged harm to Palestinian civilians at Gaza aid sites, stating that lessons have been learned and new instructions issued after incidents of inaccurate artillery fire, amid ongoing concerns over the safety and neutrality of aid operations in Gaza.
Israel's military has been using an AI target-creation platform called "the Gospel" to select bombing targets in Gaza during its offensive against Hamas. The platform, which uses machine learning and advanced computing, has significantly accelerated the production of targets, with the IDF claiming to have identified over 12,000 targets in Gaza. The Gospel has been used to produce automated recommendations for attacking targets, including the private homes of suspected Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives. Concerns have been raised about the risks posed to civilians as advanced militaries increasingly rely on complex and opaque automated systems on the battlefield.
The cluster munitions that the U.S. is sending to Ukraine often fail to detonate, posing a lasting danger to civilians. The Pentagon claims that the weapons have been improved to minimize civilian harm, but their own statements reveal that the cluster munitions contain older grenades with a failure rate of 14 percent or more. These grenades can remain unexploded for years or even decades, posing a threat to adults and children who come across them. While the Biden administration had reservations about supplying cluster munitions, they ultimately decided to provide them to Ukraine due to the country's shortage of artillery rounds. Cluster munitions are banned by over 100 countries due to the high risk of civilian casualties.