A purported Pentagon report published by multiple US and other international media outlets has revealed that the American military killed some 23 civilians worldwide in 2020.
Reports say the United States admitted to killing the civilians in the Pentagon document.
An Al Jazeera report cited Pentagon as saying majority of the civilians were killed in Afghanistan.
According to reports, Pentagon further admitted deaths recorded in previous years.
But reports say the figure quoted by the US army was far below figures compiled by non-governmental agencies.
Accordingly, the killings of civilians occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria. At least 20 of the deaths were recorded in Afghanistan.
The report by Pentagon said 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 document read, part of an annual report required by Congress since 2018 although parts of it remain secret”,
The report added that one civilian was killed in Somalia in February 2020 and another in Iraq in March.
Again, the Pentagon report noted that although Congress allocated $3m to the Pentagon in 2020 for financial compensation to the families of civilian victims, no such compensation has been paid.
By Melvin Tarlue