The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog—a revelation that comes amid mounting international outrage over the deadly strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran.
The Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR) program, designed to handle training and procedures critical to limiting civilian casualties in theaters of war, was shut down by the Donald Trump administration despite being mandated by law, according to The Guardian.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen have opened a new investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's role in dismantling what they described as the military's "civilian harm prevention guard rails."
The timing of the program's elimination is devastating. The US strike on the Minab elementary school has been identified as the sixth-largest massacre of schoolchildren in human history, according to historical death toll records. The attack killed scores of young girls in what was described as a precision strike on what US military officials claimed was a weapons facility co-located with the school.
In Iran, as across revolutionary states, the tension between ideological rigidity and pragmatic necessity shapes all policy—domestic and foreign. But this incident transcends the familiar narratives of US-Iran hostility. The systematic dismantling of civilian protection mechanisms represents institutional failure, not merely a single catastrophic error in targeting.
The CHMR program was established following years of advocacy by human rights organizations and military reform advocates who documented patterns of civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Its mandate included pre-strike assessments, real-time monitoring, post-strike investigations, and compensation frameworks for victims' families.
The watchdog report, obtained by lawmakers, indicates the program was not merely reduced but "quietly shut down"—raising questions about whether the decision was deliberately obscured from congressional oversight. The Pentagon has not publicly announced the closure or provided justification for eliminating a legally mandated program.
Iranian officials have demanded international investigations and accountability, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi calling the strike "an act of state terrorism against children." The Islamic Republic has referred the incident to the International Criminal Court, though US non-membership limits the court's jurisdiction.
The strike has also complicated regional diplomatic efforts. Gulf Arab states, traditionally aligned with US security architecture but wary of popular backlash against civilian casualties, have issued unusually sharp criticism. UAE officials privately expressed concern that such incidents undermine efforts to build regional coalitions against Iranian influence.
Within Iran, the attack has unified factions typically divided between reformist and hardline camps. Even voices critical of the clerical establishment have joined in condemning the strike, while hardliners cite it as vindication of their "resistance axis" ideology and skepticism toward Western engagement.
The Pentagon watchdog's findings reveal that key CHMR personnel were reassigned, training programs canceled, and databases tracking civilian casualty patterns shut down. Former military officials told investigators that the dismantling occurred "without consultation" with field commanders who relied on CHMR assessments.
The investigation by Senators Warren and Van Hollen will examine whether the program's elimination violated the 2022 defense authorization law that established civilian harm mitigation requirements. Legal experts suggest the administration could face congressional appropriations restrictions or court challenges over the shutdown.
For Iranian civil society, already navigating the complex terrain between regime authoritarianism and external threats, the Minab strike represents a profound tragedy that transcends political calculation. The victims were schoolgirls whose futures were extinguished in an instant—a human cost that no strategic rationale can justify.
The dismantling of the CHMR program suggests a troubling trajectory: the institutionalization of civilian harm as an acceptable cost of military operations, precisely the opposite of the accountability mechanisms the law intended to establish.
