{"id":66185,"date":"2022-09-28T15:51:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T15:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/28\/12-civilians-killed-5-injured-during-us-operations-in-2021\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:01:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:01:56","slug":"12-civilians-killed-5-injured-during-us-operations-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/09\/28\/12-civilians-killed-5-injured-during-us-operations-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"12 civilians killed, 5 injured during U.S. operations in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Air strikes coordinated by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of 12 civilians and injuries to five more<\/a> in 2021, during the final days of the war in Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department\u2019s annual civilian casualties report<\/a>, released Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten of those deaths were the result of an errant bombing in Kabul<\/a> a day before U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan for good, an attempt to prevent another attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport as a noncombatant evacuation wrapped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though no one was formally punished for the mistaken targeting in that attack, which killed Zamarai Ahmadi and nine members of his family, it did provide a reckoning for DoD\u2019s handling of not only air strikes but their aftermath, prompting attempts at further transparency going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In line with that, the Pentagon made public its latest annual civilian casualty report to Congress on Tuesday. Beyond the Kabul attack, the U.S. accounted for 2 more civilian deaths, one in Herat on Jan. 8, 2021, and one in Kandahar on Aug. 11, 2021, as well as three civilian injuries in Barrow, Somalia, on Jan. 1, 2021, and two in Kandahar on Jan. 18, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a matter of policy, U.S. forces routinely conduct operations under policy standards that are more protective of civilians than is required by the law of war, and we are committed to continuing to improve our approach to civilian harm mitigation and response,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, U.S. forces are not immune to mistaken targeting or unanticipated collateral damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after the Kabul strike in 2021, the New York Times reported<\/a> that a U.S. strike improperly targeted a group of women and children during operations in Syria, prompting an internal review which found no wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January, a Pentagon-commissioned study by Rand Corp. deemed the U.S.\u2019s civilian casualty tracking framework a \u201chot mess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t