DoD admits mistake in Bombing Raid

[indexer]

The US defence department says troops in Afghanistan failed to follow proper procedures when they carried out air raids on Taliban militants last month.

"There were some problems with some tactics, techniques and procedures, the way in which close air support was supposed to have been executed in this case," Mr Morrell said at a Pentagon news conference in Washington.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8090422.stm

"That plane, because of how it takes its bombing routes, had to break away from positive identification of their target at one point to make its elongated approach," he said.

The finding on the B-1 aircraft was "the fundamental complaint that was rendered I believe from this investigation."

But Morrell said it was unclear if the failure to follow certain procedures resulted in civilian deaths.

"It was just noted as one of the problems associated with these events, not that it was the cause of the civilian casualties," he said.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/World/Story/A1Story20090609-147196.html

It's a good thing they replaced the leadership of the American military in command in Afghanistan. Someone needs to clean up these recurring messes.

 

[LineInTheSand]

I wonder if the "fog of war" was also a contributing factor.

 

[raimius]

...because it was the generals' fault (yes ALL of them).

War sucks, people die. Quite often innocent people die. We all do what we can to minimize the chances of innocents being killed or wounded while still balancing the need to accomplish the mission. That is why the concepts of proportionality, military necessity, and minimizing unnecessary suffering are part of the Law of Armed Conflict.

Obviously, something went wrong. It's been investigated. The DoD works hard to learn from mistakes, since they can cost us our lives, the lives of our comrades, or the lives of innocent people.