Message Board

Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

New York: Hundreds of civilian deaths in the American-led invasion of Iraq could have been prevented by abandoning two "misguided military tactics", a US-based watchdog group said in a report today (Dec 11, 2003).

The use of cluster munitions in populated areas caused more civilian casualties than any other factor in the coalition's conduct of major military operations in March and April, the Human Rights Watch said.

US and British forces used almost 13,000 cluster munitions, containing nearly 2 million sub-munitions, that killed or wounded more than 1,000 civilians, said the 147-page report, "Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq".

Meanwhile, 50 strikes on top Iraqi leaders failed to kill any of the intended targets, but instead killed dozens of civilians, the report said.

The US "decapitation" strategy relied on intercepts of senior Iraqi leaders' satellite phone calls along with corroborating intelligence that proved inadequate. As a result, the US military could only locate targets within a 100-meter radius (clearly inadequate precision in civilian neighborhoods), it added.

"Coalition forces generally tried to avoid killing Iraqis who weren't taking part in combat," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But the deaths of hundreds of civilians still could have been prevented."

PTI