Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps UK forces take to avoid civilian casualties when targeting (a) oil facilities and (b) other infrastructure in Syria.

Penny Mordaunt

Regardless of the type of target being considered, the UK performs an assessment prior to every UK strike to assess the likelihood of any civilian casualties. This examines the impact of the strike on the surrounding area and whether there are likely to be any civilians present.

The UK military takes every possible step to avoid civilian casualties.