On Dec. 21, the Department of Defense announced “sweeping new guidance” aimed at reducing civilian deaths resulting from U.S. military operations. Politico reports that the new instruction comes in response to a series of high-profile instances of U.S. military operations killing civilians in recent years. These include the killing of ten civilians, seven of whom were children, by a drone strike in Kabul during the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, and a covered-up 2019 strike in Syria that killed dozens of women and children, both exposed by the New York Times.
Among other things, the instruction directs senior DOD civilian and military leaders to each identify a senior official or flag officer to lead their organization’s efforts related to mitigating civilian harm, with the aim of embedding the new ethos across the department and geographic combatant commands.
