Pentagon documents reveal 'deeply flawed' US air wars in Middle East: Report

newly found Pentagon documents have revealed that United States air wars in Middle Eastern region have been marked by “deeply flawed intelligence” which led to deaths of thousands of civilians including children, reported New York Times on Saturday. paper said that a range of confidential documents covering over 1,300 reports of civilian fatalities undercuts government’s portrayal of a war fought with precision bombs. It also said that commitments for both transparency and accountability have constantly fallen short. 

In first of a two-part series, paper reported, “t a single record provided includes a finding of wrongdoing or disciplinary action.” Several instances mentioned by NYT have been previously reported, but paper also ted that its investigation revealed that number of civilian deaths had been “drastically undercounted” by at least several hundred. 

three cases mentioned in report also include one that took place on 19 July 2016, when US special forces bombed what y believed to be three Islamic State group staging areas in rrn Syria. preliminary reports stated that bombing killed 85 fighters. However, NYT stated that people left dead in attack were 120 farmers as well as or villrs. Ar example where civil casualties were t accurately mentioned was vember 2015 attack in Ramadi, Iraq. 

vember 2015 bombing by US took place after a man was seen dragging “an unkwn heavy object” into an Islamic State position. But, so-called “object” was a child who died in strike, review later found. report also said that poor or inadequate surveillance foot, in several instances, contributed to deadly targeting failures. 

Most recently, US had to reverse its claim that a vehicle that was destroyed by a drone on a Kabul street in August of this year had contained bombs. strike, which left 10 dead were later found to be a family including children. report also said that many US attacks left victims with disabilities who required expensive treatment. But, it added that financial compensation numbered fewer than a dozen. 

US Central Command said ‘mistakes do happen’

It is to te that when Captain Bill Urban, spokesperson for US Central Command, was asked for a comment, he told NYT that “even with best techlogy in world, mistakes do happen, wher based on incomplete information or misinterpretation of information available. And we try to learn from those mistakes.” Urban added, “We work diligently to avoid such harm. We investigate each credible instance. And we regret each loss of incent life.”

IM: AP