WASHINGTON: United States military actions killed about 120 civilians and injured 65 others in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia last year, the Pentagon said in a report on Thursday, though the figures were far lower than those reported by watchdog groups.

The annual report, mandated by Congress, showed a significant drop from nearly 800 civilians killed in 2017, in part because the pace of operations had slowed against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

During operations in Afghanistan in 2018, 76 civilians were killed, with 42 killed in total in Iraq and Syria, and two civilians killed during a strike in Somalia, according to the nearly 20-page report, which tracks air and ground military operations.

The Pentagon assessed that no civilians were killed in Libya or Yemen, the report said. Still, the civilian casualties in the report were far lower than those reported by watchdog groups.

Amnesty International USA said that while the report was a welcome step, more was required.

“The Department of Defence unfortunately still significantly undercounts civilian casualties caused by US-led operations, as demonstrated by our recent, detailed reporting on civilian casualties in Somalia and in Syria,” said Daphne Eviatar, director of Security with Human Rights at Amnesty International USA.

Amnesty International and the monitoring group Airwars, in a report published late in April, said the US-backed assault to drive Islamic State militants from the Syrian capital Raqqa in 2017 killed more than 1,600 civilians.

In February, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said 1,185 civilians were killed during operations conducted by pro-government forces in 2018.

The Pentagon report said there was a difference in civilian casualty assessments between the US military and UNAMA because they used different methodologies.

Commander Candice Tresch, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said this was the first year the full report was unclassified. “Although civilian casualties are a tragic and unavoidable part of war, no force in history is more committed to limiting harm to civilians than the US military, which routinely applies standards that are more protective of civilians than required by the Law of Armed Conflict,” Tresch said.

Sexual assaults spike in US military

The US Defence Department said on Thursday the estimated number of sexual assaults in the military climbed nearly 38 per cent in 2018 compared with a survey two years earlier, data that critics say laid bare broken Pentagon promises of a crackdown.

The Pentagon said there were 6,053 reports of sexual assaults last year, according to an anonymous, bi-annual survey. It is a record number and the highest since the US military began collecting this kind of survey data in 2004.

Taking into consideration unreported cases as well, the military survey estimated 20,500 male and female service members experienced some kind of sexual assault last year. The estimated number in 2016 was 14,900.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic presidential candidate who has been an advocate for overhauling rules for prosecution of sex crimes in the US military, said the data made clear that it was time for Congress to act. Sexual assaults continue to incre­ase dramatically while the number of cases going to trial goes down,” she said. “The status quo is not working.”

The report found that the odds of a military woman between the ages of 17 and 20 being sexually assaulted was one in eight.

“It is time for Congress to stop giving the failing military leadership the benefit of doubt and pass real reform empowering military prosecutors. Eno­­u­­gh is enough,” said Don Christensen, a retired colonel and former chief Air Force prosecutor who now leads the advocacy group Protect Our Defenders.

The Pentagon said it was going to make changes to deal with the spike.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2019