A group of House Democrats is pressing the Pentagon for answers following reports suggesting the U.S. military may have helped Nigerian forces with a 2017 airstrike that killed more than 160 civilians at a refugee camp in the African country.
The request came in a letter Thursday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent by the five members of the newly formed Protection of Civilians in Conflict Caucus, launched last month after the Defense Department announced new efforts to prevent civilian deaths and injuries from U.S. military operations.
“Civilians should never be targeted in war. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened in Nigeria in 2017,” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., co-chair of the caucus, said in a statement about the letter.
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The caucus “demand” includes answers to whether the U.S. military and its intelligence played a role in the strike, the U.S. took measures to limit civilian casualties, and the damage has been adequately addressed, Jacobs said.
Asked for comment on the letter or the reports on which the letter is based, the Pentagon told Military.com only that “as with all correspondence received from lawmakers, the secretary will respond to the authors of the letter in due course.”
The Pentagon under Austin has vowed to better protect civilians from military operations, including the creation last month of a new…
