Pentagon report: US strikes killed 120 civilians in 2018

WASHINGTON - U.S. military operations killed 120 civilians in 2018, the Pentagon said in a new assessment of noncombatant deaths.

The department, in an annual report to Congress, said that 42 civilians were confirmed to have been killed last year in the U.S.-led operation against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It said 76 more were killed in operations against the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan, and two civilians died in operations against al-Shabab in Somalia.

The department found no credible reports of civilian deaths caused by U.S. operations in Libya or Yemen last year.

Outside watchdog groups such as Airwars have put forward much higher death tolls for U.S. counterterrorism strikes. For 2018, despite a significant slowing of the American campaign against the Islamic State, Airwars found that air and artillery strikes by the U.S.-led coalition killed a minimum off 805 people in Iraq and Syria alone.

The gap underscores the differing approaches that the groups, which typically rely on witness statements and accounts on social media, have taken in piecing together information about U.S. strikes and that of the military, which has slowly begun to incorporate such data into its assessments.

The report comes several months after the Trump administration altered an Obama administration rule requiring a separate, broader annual report on civilian casualties.

The White House argued the change was made to avoid duplication with the congressionally mandated report. But the White House report previously included a tally including accidental deaths caused by military and intelligence operations. Its elimination means the public will no longer have access to information about CIA drone strikes.

CIA strikes are far less frequent than they were under President Barack Obama, but the agency remains authorized to conduct such attacks.

Dan Mahanty, director for U.S. Program at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the report reflected improved military transparency about its operations overseas. But the lack of information from intelligence agencies "brings the government's inconsistency further into relief and undermines this achievement," he said.

"The report also further validates our instinct that we clearly still have work to do on the degree of effort DOD puts into proactively seeking out facts that it doesn't have at its fingertips," Mahanty said.

The Pentagon found no U.S.-caused civilian casualties in Yemen at a moment when U.S. involvement there has become a politically charged issue.

Last month, President Donald Trump vetoed a measure that would have ended U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia and allied countries battling Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The U.S. military does not generally attack Houthi targets, but it has provided arms and refueled planes for the Saudi-led coalition, which has been criticized for repeatedly killing civilians. The U.S. military conducts a separate campaign against al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The two deaths referenced in Somalia mark the first time since U.S. Africa Command was created in 2008 that it acknowledged causing civilian loss of life.