The US newspaper, The New York Times has reported that thousands of civilians in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, including children have been killed in the US airstrikes conducted with imprecise targeting and deeply flawed intelligence.

The newspaper studied 1,311 documents from a hidden Pentagon archive, concluding that civilian death toll was a lot higher than the 1,417 civilian deaths reported by the US military in Iraq and Syria and 188 deaths in Afghanistan.

It said the civilian deaths were often the result of confirmation bias on part of the US military, which confused civilians with terrorist fighters or failed to make sure that the targeted buildings have no ordinary people inside.