The United States military maintains a commitment to minimizing civilian casualties and collateral damage during armed conflicts -- a practice grounded in ethics and realized through advanced technologies.

This dedication is rooted in a commitment to the moral imperative to protect innocent lives.

In December 2023, the US Department of Defense formally institutionalized the policies and procedures for preventing and mitigating civilian harm with an official instruction on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR).

The military implements this guidance through meticulous planning, rigorous training and advanced precision-targeting technologies.

Before any military operation, the US military conducts extensive planning to assess and mitigate potential risks to civilians and non-combatant infrastructure. This process, known as collateral damage estimation, involves analyzing the likelihood of civilian harm and implementing strategies to minimize it.

Factors such as weapon selection, attack direction and timing are carefully considered to reduce unintended consequences.

US commanders take additional steps beyond the law of war to protect civilians when they are practicable and in line with mission objectives.

The United States also has a policy to minimize damage to protected sites, unless they are used for military operations.

These sites include cultural and historic buildings, nonmilitary structures, mosques and other religious places, civilian population centers and hospitals and other facilities displaying the Red Crescent or Red Cross emblem.

Precision strikes

The US military is able to implement this strategy by using advanced precision-guided munitions that can strike targets while minimizing harm to civilians or causing collateral damage.

Such weapons typically use the global positioning system (GPS), laser guidance or inertial navigation systems to improve a weapon's accuracy to reportedly less than three meters (approximately 10 feet).

Many operations demonstrate the US military's commitment to precision and civilian safety.

In February, for example, US airstrikes targeted a cave complex in the Golis Mountains in Somalia in a strike coordinated with the Somali government.

The operation eliminated a senior "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) attack planner and several militants and was conducted with precision to avoid civilian casualties, according to US government officials.

In July 2022, a US drone strike eliminated al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in his in Kabul hideout, using a modified Hellfire missile designed to attack without explosion to reduce collateral damage.

The operation targeted al-Zawahiri on a balcony, ensuring other occupants of the building were unharmed.

Members of al-Zawahiri's family were present in the home but "were purposely not targeted and were not harmed," one official told AFP at the time.