This March 27, 2008 file photograph exhibits the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Picture/Charles Dharapak, File)
WASHINGTON --
The U.S. army wants to regulate its planning, coaching, concentrating on and use of weapons as a way to higher keep away from widespread civilian deaths and harm such because the devastating 2017 battle to liberate the Syrian metropolis of Raqqa from Islamic State militants, a brand new RAND report mentioned Thursday.
The report requested by the Pentagon displays criticism of the army's airstrike marketing campaign that, based on some estimates, killed greater than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa, because the U.S.-led coalition labored to destroy the Islamic State caliphate that wrested management of enormous swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby mentioned the report, which lays out a sequence of suggestions to enhance army procedures and technique, might be used because the division develops its personal broader plan to scale back civlian hurt.
"No different army works as arduous as we do to mitigate civilian hurt, and but we nonetheless trigger it," mentioned Kirby. "We'll proceed to attempt to be taught from previous points."
RAND concluded that the battle for Raqqa supplied necessary classes.
Michael McNerney, lead creator of the RAND report, referred to as Raqqa "a cautionary story about civilian hurt in city fight." He mentioned it "ought to function an additional incentive to the DoD to strengthen its insurance policies and procedures to mitigate, doc and reply to civilian hurt."
The RAND report famous that there was a variety of estimated civilian casualties in the course of the seige, but additionally mentioned it believes that 60%-80% of Raqqa was left uninhabitable by the point town was liberated in October 2017.
Initially the U.S.-led coalition estimted that it was liable for 38 incidents involving 240 civilian casualties -- together with 178 who had been killed. A consortium of native Syrian and worldwide teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide and Airwars, put the variety of casualties at a "excessive estimate" of 1,600, however mentioned that about 774 of them may particularly be "verified" by knowledge as the results of coalition motion.
The report makes it clear that a number of thousand extra civilians probably died, based mostly on the variety of our bodies uncovered by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, however many had been in all probability killed by IS or different fighters on the bottom.
"Our report focuses on U.S. actions in Raqqa, however the actions of the Syrian authorities and its Russian and Iranian companions undoubtedly contributed way more to civilian hurt and struggling in Syria general," McNerney mentioned.
The report famous that the challenges in Raqqa had been compounded by limits on the quantity U.S. troops that could possibly be there, in addition to the place they could possibly be positioned. U.S. troops on the bottom may have supplied higher concentrating on and civilian info, together with on Islamic State militants' efforts to make use of civilians as human shields, the report mentioned.
RAND really helpful that the U.S. army present extra in depth coaching and steerage on the necessity to keep away from civilian hurt, and plan and execute operations in methods to realize these targets. Adjustments may embody improved planning, higher assessments of potential collateral harm, elevated mission rehearsals, improved intelligence gathering, and extra selective use of air strikes and munitions that reduce bomb fragmentation.
Post a Comment