WASHINGTON — The U.S. military must follow the "Law of War" which sets out rules for armed conflict, like prohibiting torture and unnecessary destruction.
It's all spelled out in a manual that states: "The law of war is a part of our military heritage, and obeying it is the right thing to do."
But a 2021 Defense Department inspector general investigation found deficiencies in how — and whether — the Pentagon tracked alleged war crimes.
Now a new Government Accountability Office report finds key failures in two Defense Department command centers: CENTCOM and AFRICOM.
Those two command centers provided GAO records of at least 47 documented allegations of potential war crimes that took place between January 2012 and December 2022.
The GAO said the DOD doesn't have a system for retaining comprehensive records of these alleged violations and the GAO concludes that without a system to retain these records, DOD leadership may lack the information needed to fully comply with the law of war.
The report's author, GAO Defense Capabilities and Management Team Director Diana Maurer, said it's important the United States gets this right.
"It's important to have a consistent set of rules. It's also important to have a common understanding about what kinds of allegations need to be reported up the chain as well as giving commanders the tools they need to assess whether or not those allegations are credible and need to be further investigated," she said in an interview with 13News Now.