Tag: Hidden Shame

American War, Uncategorized

U.S. Military Is Undercounting Civilian Casualties in Somalia

Relatives gather to look at the dead bodies of ten people including children after a raid on their farms in Bariire, some 50 km west of Mogadishu, on August 25, 2017.Somali officials said Friday they had killed eight jihadist fighters during an overnight operation, denying claims from local elders that they had shot civilians dead, two of them children. Somali community leaders accused the troops, accompanied by US military advisors, of having killed the nine civilians in the overnight operations. An initial government statement said its troops had come under fire from jihadists while on patrol, insisting that no civilians had been killed. A later statement acknowledged that there had been civilian casualties, in what the government seemed to suggest was a separate incident. They did not say who was responsible. / AFP PHOTO / Mohamed ABDIWAHAB (Photo credit should read MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP via Getty Images)

During the first six months of 2019 alone, U.S. Africa Command tracked seven reports of American and allied attacks in Somalia that allegedly killed or wounded at least 18 civilians, according to internal AFRICOM documents obtained by The Intercept. But the U.S. does not acknowledge killing or wounding a single civilian in Somalia last year, according to AFRICOM spokesperson John Manley.

via U.S. Military Is Undercounting Civilian Casualties in Somalia