The US Pentagon has effectively shut down a legally mandated programme designed to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in military operations, according to a report by the department's own inspector general. The Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR) programme — created in 2022 under then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin following US airstrikes estimated to have killed tens of thousands of civilians across the Middle East and Afghanistan — has lost most of its staff, seen its funding cut, and halted key committee meetings, leaving the military unable to comply with two federal statutes requiring its operation. The dismantling coincides with a period of intensified US strikes on Iran, including an attack on a girls' school in Minab that killed at least 175 people, the majority of them children, raising alarm among civilian protection advocates about the consequences of gutting oversight infrastructure during active combat operations.