{"id":79278,"date":"2023-12-21T21:29:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T21:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/12\/21\/us-revamps-how-it-prevents-handles-collateral-damage-in-strikes\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:35:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:35:47","slug":"us-revamps-how-it-prevents-handles-collateral-damage-in-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2023\/12\/21\/us-revamps-how-it-prevents-handles-collateral-damage-in-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon revamps how it prevents, handles collateral damage in strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Defense Department on Friday unveiled its new rules for reducing harm to civilians while striking military targets, a development inspired by 2021 reviews of the U.S.\u2019 erroneous targeting of civilians in Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 52-page document<\/a> outlines how the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Plan will be integrated from the highest levels of the Pentagon down to the services and combatant commands. The document details DOD\u2019s efforts to prevent striking civilians, and also directs how to handle the aftermath when civilian casualties result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe release of the DOD instruction continues the process of improving the department\u2019s approach to mitigating and responding to civilian harm,\u201d Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said during a press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development comes as a result of two reviews that first launched in 2021, one that analyzed a 2019 strike in Baghouz, Syria, which killed dozens of civilians, and another that occurred during the battle to reclaim Raqqa, Syria, from ISIS in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both reviews found that the Defense Department did not have codified policies on preventing civilian harm or handling its aftermath.<\/p>\n\n\n\t