A new central office in the Pentagon will work with the military and battlefield commanders in an attempt to limit the number of civilian casualties overseas following recent U.S. strikes that killed women and children.
Plans for the so-called Civilian Protection Center of Excellence were unveiled Thursday following a months-long review ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in January. As part of a wider effort to limit casualties, the department plans to stand up the center within a year and staff it with 30 personnel to start, but future growth could depend on Congress.
Civilian deaths were thrust into the spotlight again after U.S. Central Command launched an airstrike on a compound in Kabul during the chaotic military withdrawal last August that mistakenly killed 10 innocent Afghans, including children. The strike came three days after a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. troops guarding the Kabul airport.
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The Pentagon review was also spurred by a string of other reports of civilian casualties, including a Rand Corp. study that found at least 774 civilians died in the climactic battle in Raqqa, Syria, between U.S. coaltion forces and the Islamic State terrorist group in 2017, and a New York Times report that a 2019 U.S. strike in Baghuz, Syria, killed about 70 civilians, including women and children.
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