Two US lawmakers accuse Pentagon of undercounting civilian casualties from US military operations in Syria

Two US lawmakers from the Democratic Party have accused the Pentagon of hiding the real number of civilian casualties resulted from the US forces’ shelling of Syrian positions.

In a recent article, published by the US “Stars and Stripes” website, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif. said in a letter they sent to Secretary of the US Defense Department (DOD) Lloyd Austin last Monday that the Pentagon’s September 2022 report on civilian casualties did not align with reporting from news media and independent sources.

The Pentagon’s report confirmed that about 12 civilians were killed and five were injured as a result of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Somalia last year but it did not note any civilian deaths in Syria, they clarified.

The lack of reported casualties in Syria does not track with findings by civilian monitors who documented at least 15 civilian deaths and 17 injuries in the country in 2021 due to US military operations in Syria, the lawmakers wrote in their letter.

In another example about the US air raids, the two lawmakers said that the Pentagon disclosed four deaths and 15 injuries from a 2019 air strike in Baghuz area in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, but local sources counted at least 160 civilian deaths, including up to 45 children.

“This vast difference between independent reporting and DOD investigation raises concerns and undermines DOD credibility on civilian casualty reporting,” Warren and Jacobs wrote.

The letter requires a response from Austin by Jan. 16 and urges the defense secretary to improve mechanisms for civilians to report harm.

Earlier, the “New York Times” said that the US army didn’t report on two airstrikes it conducted in Syria in 2019 and that killed around 64 women and children.

Another earlier report by the New York Times also uncovered that the US forces bombed Al-Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River in Syria on March 2017 under the pretext of attacking ISIS terrorists.

The attack risked tens of thousands of lives, destroying the dam’s machinery and requiring emergency intervention to prevent the reservoir from flooding. The dam was only saved due to a “bunker-buster” bomb failing to explode, the newspaper clarified.

Hamda Mustafa