U.S. Civilian-Protection Program Scrapped Ahead of Deadly Iran School Strike
Mar 11th 2026
A Pentagon effort to reduce civilian casualties was largely dismantled after Trump officials emphasized lethality, former advisers say, weakening safeguards just weeks before a missile strike killed scores of schoolchildren in Iran and prompting questions about accountability and targeting procedures.
- A missile strike on a school in Minab, Iran, killed at least 165 people, most of them children, and open-source analysis linked the impact to a Tomahawk missile consistent with U.S. inventory.
- The Defense Department created a Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program in 2022 to map civilian presence, update no-strike lists, and investigate incidents after strikes.
- The program’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and roughly 200 assigned personnel were largely defunded or cut after the Trump administration reprioritized lethality under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
- Former staff say about 90 percent of the CHMR mission was eliminated, leaving most regional commands with at most a single adviser.
- U.S. strike activity and reported civilian casualties rose sharply after the cuts, with heavy losses reported in Iran, Yemen, Somalia and other theaters.
- Experts warn that with the harm-reduction framework sidelined there is less prestrike scrutiny and fewer transparent investigations into civilian harm.