Sun 19 December 2021:
Pentagon documents have revealed that the US air wars in the Middle East, which have claimed the lives of several civilians, were marked by “deeply flawed intelligence.”
The New York Times reported that a trove of confidential documents revealed that the US government has repeatedly failed to live up to its promise of transparency and accountability.
“Not a single record provided includes a finding of wrongdoing or disciplinary action,” the report stated.
Several confidential documents revealed more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties during air wars in the Middle East, according to the New York Times newspaper. The government justified this as part of wars fought with ‘precision bombs.’
According to the newspaper, the number of civilian deaths has been greatly underreported by US authorities, with at least several hundreds of innocent civilians dying as a result of these air wars.
One such incident cited was bombing by US forces in northern Syria on July 19, 2016 during which it was reported that 85 fighters had been killed by the authorities. However, reports are now stating that 120 farmers and villagers were the ones who were killed during this strike.
Similarly, during a November 2015 attack in Iraq’s Ramadi, the US forces had targeted a man carrying an ‘unidentified object’ into an Islamic State position. That ‘unidentified object’ was actually a small child, the report claimed.
Similarly, the Times stated that sometimes “men on motorcycles moving ‘in formation,’ displaying the ‘signature’ of an imminent attack, were just men on motorcycles.”
Poor or insufficient surveillance footage has been cited as a plausible explanation for these heinous errors in the air wars.
This report comes at a time when the world was already questioning US forces for their attack in Kabul on a “unidentified vehicle” and a house (a few days after Taliban took control of Afghanistan). What was billed as an attack on suspected IS militants turned out to be a botched attack on ten family members, including minors.
Many of the victims of US air strikes have been critically injured and are expected to live for the rest of their lives. The condolence payments, on the other hand, have been staggered.
“Even with the best technology in the world, mistakes do happen, whether based on incomplete information or misinterpretation of the information available. And we try to learn from those mistakes,” Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command told the Times. “We work diligently to avoid such harm. We investigate each credible instance. And we regret each loss of innocent life.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
Photo: US airstrike Mosul, Iraq.
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