civilian casualties
Innocents killed unintentionally
Civilian casualties are non-combatants killed or injured during armed conflict—people who aren't soldiers or fighters.
The term appears frequently in news coverage of wars and military operations: The airstrike caused significant civilian casualties.
Casualty here means someone harmed, not necessarily killed, though the phrase often implies deaths.
Military and political discourse sometimes uses the term clinically to soften the reality of dead and wounded bystanders.
- noncombatantPerson not engaged in warfare
- collateral damageUnintended harm from military action
- war crimesIllegal acts during conflict
- bystanderOne who observes nearby
- crossfireGunfire from several angles
human shields · displacement · innocent · Geneva Conventions · victim · unarmed · orphaned children · mass graves · war crimes tribunals · incidental · human rights violations · minimize · fatality · rules of engagement · no-fly zone · airstrikes · death toll · mortality
- warcombat, warfare, battle scenes, battles, soldier
- Ukraine WarUkraine, Kherson, Mariupol, Kyiv, Donetsk
- war casualtieswar dead, killed in action, fallen soldiers, fallen soldier, wounded in action
- war journalismwar correspondent, war photography, war zone, embedded reporter, embedded journalism
- war victimswar victims, combat wounded, wounded soldiers, war widows, war orphans
- 1956 HungaryHungarian Revolution, 1956, freedom fighters, Soviet invasion, Soviet tanks
civic, civilian, civilized, casualty, civilization, uncivilized, casually, civility, casualties