Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

Trump administration accused of cutting military’s civilian harm program in light of US strike on girls’ school in Iran

Guardian, Joseph Gedeon and Cate Brown in Washington, 16 May 26

The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog.

A report released by the department’s inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE).

Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of making deep cuts to the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) program, designed to handle training and procedures critical in limiting civilian harm in theaters of war.

While the program has not been officially canceled, the inspector general’s report said that funding had ended for a data management platform; committee meetings had halted; and many dedicated personnel had been lost or reassigned.

“As a result, the DoW [Department of War] may not comply with its civilian casualties and harm policy,” the report read. “A policy required by federal law.”………………………………………………………………….

Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, has recently come under fire over deadly attacks on Iran, including a US strike in Minab that killed at least 175 people, a majority of them children, at an all-girls school.

Limiting casualties has not been a top priority during Hegseth’s tenure at the Department of War, rebranded last September from the Department of Defense. When pressed on civilian casualties in Iran, Hegseth has pivoted to blame the Iranian regime for placing rocket launchers in civilian areas, and also claimed no nation in history had taken more precautions than the US to avoid civilian deaths.

The inspector general’s report, and people familiar with the office, tell a different story.

“My assessment is that they’ve left a semblance of the department because Hegseth was taking heat for illegal operations,” said Wes J Bryant, an air force combat veteran who was the chief of civilian harm assessments on the CP CoE program.

He described a stream of forced resignations and halted investigations since Hegseth assumed his post, saying there were only seven people left reporting to the program, and that they are “locked out of all operations” and have been relegated to “a closet office” in Virginia.

Bryant was forced out of his job last spring, as the Trump administration removed safeguards that once restrained US forces from authorizing the use of lethal force, according to a ProPublica report.

The inspector general’s report, published on 13 May, points to an inflection point in February, when two senior officials – the acting under-secretary of war for policy, Elbridge Colby, and the secretary of the army, Dan Driscoll – separately proposed to Hegseth the program be cut or eliminated.

One proposal went further, according to the report, and recommended scrapping its action plan and its underpinning departmental instruction entirely. Then, without waiting for a response, the military began acting as if the cuts had already been approved……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/15/pentagon-civilian-death-program