Report: US military must do more to avoid civilian deaths

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report says the U.S. military needs to adjust its planning, targeting and use of weapons in order to better avoid widespread civilian deaths and damage such as the devastating 2017 battle to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants. The RAND report requested by the Pentagon reflects criticism of the military’s airstrike campaign that, according to some estimates, killed more than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa, as the U.S.-led coalition worked to destroy the Islamic State caliphate that wrested control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.