According to three defense officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses is working to close a pentagonal office and position that focuses on preventing and responding to civilian harm during US combat operations.
Employees at the Pentagon's civilian harm mitigation and response office are dealing with policy matters related to limiting risks to non-combatants across the military, and were informed on Monday that their office would be closed, officials said. They were also said that the Civil Conservation Centre of Excellence, which handles training and procedures, would be closed as well.
The Pentagon could cut all positions with the command of combatants around the world, like the Central Command and Africa Command, which serves to mitigate and assess risks to civilians during airstrikes and other military operations.
It is unclear whether Hegses has withdrawn the Pentagon policy direction.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy changes.
If implemented, the decision would eliminate the employment of more than 160 Department of Defense employees.
The Secretary of Defense Office presented questions regarding Hegzes' decision to close these programs to the Army.
In President Trump's first week of office, the Army called on Pentagon leaders to withdraw policy leadership, exempt responsibility for excellence, and ask Congress to request that the office be removed.
The laws of armed conflict require the protection of civilians in war zones, and senior commanders require that their troops draft rules of involvement in order to comply with them.
It has long been considered the bedrock of US military culture, but these principles are under threat in the Second Trump administration. Hegses repeatedly says he wants to return “combat” and “warrior spirit” to the army, which makes him too soft and bureaucratic.
During the Senate confirmation hearing, Hegseth answered questions about his past comments, including “engagement restrictions rules,” explained by a unified lawyer known as the judge's advocate general.
Such engagement rules establishing guidelines for the use of lethal force in military operations are actually signed by senior officers in certain combat theatres, not by JAG officers.
During the Pentagon leader purge on February 21, Hegses fired the best uniformed lawyer for the Army and Air Force. The Navy's Top Jag, a three-star admiral, retired suddenly in December. His aide, the two-star admiral, remains as a jug of the acting navy.
In a LinkedIn post late Monday night, Matt Isler, a retired Air Force brigadier general who oversaw the combination of air surveillance, the Union Air Force and ground weapons, was pushed back to a new Pentagon leadership decision, supporting ground forces fighting Islamic state fighters in Iraq and Syria.
“Recently, the Department of Defense's efforts to alleviate civilian deaths in the war have inappropriately constrained the US military,” he wrote. “This could not be far from the truth.”
“Reducing the risk of harm to civilians will focus on combat effectiveness on the enemy, accelerate the achievement of campaign goals, protect combat power and protect fighter jets,” he added.
Hegseth's decision was heavily criticised by civilian harm protection advocates who had worked in close consultations with the military to develop the policy.
“The abolition of these life-saving policies will be a betrayal of civilians who have been betrayed by the brunt of American operations,” said Annie Ciel, director of US advocacy at the Center for Civilians in the Conflict. “It also says fighter jets and veterans secretary Hegus is in support. They have worked to ensure that the United States can learn from the serious mistakes and lessons of past wars.”
Eliminating these programs could halt efforts to provide relief and payment to civilian casualties in US combat operations.
Between 2015 and 2024, Joanna Napols Mitchell, a human rights lawyer representing 30 families whose loved ones were injured or killed in US combat operations in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan, said elimination of these programs would exacerbate the trauma of civilian casualties and moral injuries to workers involved in accidents.
Naples-Mitchell, who will include relatives of victims who were covered by New York Times report, said the changes will reduce government efficiency.
“Killing innocent people is not just a moral taint,” she said. “We waste government resources and make Americans safe.”
The Department of Defense's civil protection program was launched in the first Trump administration by then Secretary of Defense James N. Matisse in response to a November 2017 Times report on civilians killed during airstrikes in Iraq.
In 2022, after a series of investigations revealing systemic failures to protect civilians, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin announced changes to military doctrine, planning and training sweep aimed at mitigate the risk of civilian harm.
The programs were told they were improving US civilian policies, but they faced criticism that they were not addressing US-backed operations with military aid alone, such as the Israeli campaign in Gaza.
The Trump administration recently raided Biden-era restrictions on counterterrorism drone strikes and commando raids outside the traditional war zone, returning to the looser rules the president used in his first period.
Since Trump took office, the US military has launched several strikes in Iraq, Syria and Somalia despite his previous promise to end the “infinite war.”
The latest actions targeted Somali Al-Shabaab fighter jets on Saturday, according to a statement released by the US Africa Command.
On February 23, US forces launched an attack in northwestern Syria, which killed a senior leader of a terrorist organization belonging to al-Qaeda, and later released a video of the strike.
Five Iraqi ISIS fighters were killed in airstrikes made possible by US forces in the country on February 12, Central Command said in a statement days later.
