Responding to the Department of Defense inspector general’s report on civilian harm in conflict, Amnesty International USA’s National Director of Government Relations, Amanda Klasing, said:
“The Department of Defense inspector general’s report confirms what we’ve been saying for the last year: the Trump administration is shredding the U.S. military’s measures to reduce harm against civilians in violation of U.S. law. More civilians will likely die as a result.
“Under President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon has gutted measures and mechanisms intended to prevent, mitigate and respond to civilian harm in U.S. military operations by systematically weakening safeguards and shrinking and defunding offices aimed at reducing civilian harm.
“We are already seeing horrific consequences. ‘Operation Rough Rider,’ in which President Trump bypassed Congress completely to launch a barrage of air strikes in spring of 2025 against the Huthi armed group in Yemen, reportedly led to hundreds of civilian casualties and cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 billion. One strike in that campaign targeting a migrant detention center resulted in dozens of civilian casualties with one of the worst civilian death tolls from a U.S. air strike that Amnesty International had documented in years.
“Just eleven months later, another unlawful U.S. air strike killed 156 people including 120 children at the Minab school in Iran. An Amnesty International investigation found that the U.S. military committed a grave breach of international humanitarian law by failing to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm in the attack.
“Throughout, Trump, Hegseth and other senior officials have shown callous disregard for civilian safety, with the President at one point threatening genocide in Iran and a leaked Signal chat during Operation Rough Rider showing high-level officials using emojis and virtual fist bumps to celebrate air strikes that shattered civilian lives.
“Congress must act. The U.S. military is breaking both U.S. and international law by failing to implement measures to prevent civilian casualties and injuries. Now that the Defense Department’s own inspectors general have confirmed that the Pentagon is ignoring laws passed by Congress, legislators must exercise their oversight powers before the U.S. unlawfully kills or harms more civilians.”
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