WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered the military on Thursday to strengthen its efforts to prevent civilian deaths and to improve the way it investigates and acknowledges claims of civilian harm in U.S. combat operations.
In his most sweeping statement on the issue to date, Mr. Austin set in motion a series of measures that military officials say are intended to change how commanders in the field think about their jobs, fostering a culture in which they view preventing civilian harm as a core part of their missions.
“We can and will improve upon efforts to protect civilians,” Mr. Austin said in a two-page directive to top civilian and military officials. “The protection of innocent civilians in the conduct of our operations remains vital to the ultimate success of our operations, and as a significant strategic and moral imperative.”
The move comes after a series of investigations by The New York Times into airstrikes that killed civilians, including the cover-up of a strike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of women and children and a botched drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 10 innocent people in August. Another Times investigation based on a trove of Pentagon reviews of strikes revealed systemic failures to prevent civilian deaths in its air war against the Islamic State.
Mr. Austin, a former four-star Army general with combat experience, pledged in November to overhaul military procedures and hold top officers responsible for carrying out changes. In his memo, he ordered a standardized reporting process on civilian harm, the creation of a military “center of excellence” and the completion of a comprehensive new policy on the issue that has been in the works for nearly two years.
Mr. Austin’s directive also follows a decision by Congress to impose restrictions on some military funds until the Pentagon submits that civilian casualty policy. It also comes on the same day that the RAND Corporation published a