US military says it mistakenly killed 20 Afghan civilians last year

The US military says air and ground operations it conducted in Afghanistan last year unintentionally killed 20 civilians.

According to an annual report on civilian casualties submitted to Congress, the US Department of Defense (DoD) “assesses that there were approximately 23 civilians killed and approximately 10 civilians injured during 2020 as a result of US military operations.”

The Pentagon said in addition to the 20 deaths in Afghanistan, five people were injured in the country. The deaths and injuries took place in seven air and ground operations in January and February, the report said.

The number of civilians killed last year is far lower than in previous years.

In 2017, by contrast, the US military said it had killed nearly 500 civilians.

According to the report, although Congress allocates $3 million annually for financial compensation to the families of victims, no compensation has been paid to the victims killed and injured in 2020.

However, the number of victims that the Pentagon took responsibility for in its report is far below figures compiled by NGOs about civilian death tolls in areas where the US military is active, RFE/RL reported.

The monitoring group Airwars, which tracks civilian victims of air strikes, cited the United Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), and said it counted 89 deaths and 31 people wounded in operations by US-led coalition forces.