Pentagon policies don’t do enough to prevent harm to civilians: report

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Pentagon policies don’t do enough to prevent harm to civilians: report
By Meghann Myers
Apr 1, 11:23 AM
Destroyed buildings line a street damaged during fighting between U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighters and Islamic State militants, in Raqqa, Syria. (Hussein Malla/AP)

The second of two reviews to come out of New York Times reporting that U.S. troops targeted civilians in Syria dropped on Thursday, finding that while current planning and targeting processes do take the risk of civilian casualties into account, they do not do enough to mitigate avoidable harm.

The Rand Corp. report focused specifically on the 2017-2018 battle for Raqqa, as Kurdish and U.S. forces teamed up to liberate the city from ISIS. The major causes of civilian casualties were the conditions on the ground and a lack of good intelligence, the report found.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel Lt Col Charlie Brown SSG Michael Noll Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Cpl Vic Burk MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. SGT Charlie Lee PO2 Marco Monsalve SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth ] SSG William Jones Sgt (Join to see) 1SG Dan Capri CDR Andrew McMenamin, PhD SrA John Monette SPC Nancy Greene SGT Mark Anderson SFC Bernard Walko SGT James Murphy SGT Damaso V Santana CPL Patrick Rasmussen