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When Targeted Killings Become ‘Tragic Mistakes’ (Andrea Prasow, HRW)

On September 17, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, gave an extraordinary news conference in which he admitted that the United States had killed an aid worker in Kabul and his family; McKenzie apologized, adding that the U.S. would consider providing compensation. Although the admission was rare, the error was not.

Since the 9/11 attacks on the United States, U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere have carried out targeted killings that frequently kill and injure civilians. In many cases, these deaths are blamed on purportedly impeccable intelligence that was later proven to have been wrong.

When Targeted Killings Become ‘Tragic Mistakes’ | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)