Intel: Pentagon undercounting civilian casualties in Yemen, watchdog says
At least 86 civilians have been killed in US operations in Yemen since 2017, according to a new report by Airwars, a UK-based nongovernmental organization.
A rollback of Obama-era safeguards in the early days of the Donald Trump administration led to a wave of deaths of noncombatants from US drone strikes in the war-torn country, according to a new watchdog report released Monday.
At least 86 civilians have been killed by US military operations in Yemen since Trump took office in 2017, despite US Central Command’s claim of no more than 12 such deaths, according to Airwars, a United Kingdom-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) that tracks civilian casualties caused by the exercise of Western airpower in conflict zones.
Those 12 acknowledged deaths occurred during a failed Special Operations raid on Yakala, a village in central Yemen, during Trump‘s first month in office. A Navy SEAL was killed in the operation. The United States initially said no civilians were believed to have been killed, but that number was later amended.
“One reason CENTCOM does a poor job of tracking civilian harm allegations for Yemen is lack of a permanent civilian casualty team focused on the conflict,” Airwars writes.
