US Army reviews Afghanistan and Iraq combat deaths

The US Army has opened a review of casualty reports on American soldiers killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since 2001, a response to complaints that it has not always given families accurate information.

The review covers hundreds of casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom, the campaign in Afghanistan, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, two senior military officials said. It also includes American soldiers killed in neighbouring countries in support of the two operations.

In coming weeks, the Army will issue a directive formalising the review, according to the military officials.

“We are actively screening every Criminal Investigation Command report to ensure that there were no disconnects with the Casualty Reporting System. We are about half way through with that mission,” a memo states.

The purpose of the forthcoming Army-wide order is to tell units in the field that they must tell the Army's headquarters of any change in investigative findings that differs from what a family was initially told, a third official said.

Brig. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo, who heads the Army’s public affairs office, said the Army’s move was not new but a continuing “rigorous and routine review of current casualty cases with outstanding issues”.

Lt. Col. Dan Baggio, an Army spokesman, said that because of the constant turnover of units in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was important to remind troops that the casualty reports must agree with the actual events that occurred when a soldier was killed.

“It’s important to reinforce that the information we provide the families is accurate,” he said.

The step follows high-profile mistakes in telling families the circumstances of soldiers’ deaths.

The best-known is that of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the one-time NFL star from San Jose, California, who quit football to join the US Army Rangers and was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.

Tillman’s family was originally told he had been killed by enemy fire. Five weeks later, they learned he was shot dead by fellow Rangers after an ambush.

The military suspected it was a friendly fire death within hours, but failed to tell the Tillmans despite a regulation on the books directing it to do so, said the soldier’s mother, Mary Tillman.

She called the move positive, but she said the Army must follow up and deliver any new information to surviving family members.

“People will be able to come to terms with the truth, but if you were lied to once, then you’re always going to be distrustful,” she said in a telephone interview.

The Army is not reopening investigations into the deaths of all soldiers killed in action, but it is revisiting them to ensure family members were informed of the Army’s most accurate and updated findings.

The review has been quietly under way for more than two months, but the directive has not yet been sent to units in the field.

It will order Army units down to the battalion level to dig up so-called 15-6 investigative reports routinely conducted after combat deaths. Battalions that have been or are in Iraq or Afghanistan are being directed to ship copies of the initial casualty reports to top Army officials.

The Army will compare the initial reports to the follow-up investigations, looking for discrepancies in conclusions, according to military officials.

If the Army finds such a discrepancy, it will reappoint a casualty notification team, prepare a new report for the surviving family members and revisit the family to make personal notifications, one official said.