Meaning of collateral damage | Babel Free

Definitions

Damage to civilian property or civilian casualties that is the unintended result of military operations.

Examples

“Det er meget sjældent, at denne type angreb tillades på en dynamisk mission, da det ikke altid er muligt for kommandocentralen i øjeblikket at afgøre, hvorvidt de bygninger, der er for tæt på målet, er rent militære, og således ikke vil være en faktor for collateral damage.”

It is very rare for this type of attack to be allowed on a dynamic mission, as it is not always possible for the command central at the moment to determine whether the buildings that are too close to the target are purely military, and thus won't count as collateral damage.

“De døde var collateral damage.”

The dead were collateral damage.

“Var Jill det egentlige mål, eller var hun collateral damage?”

Was Jill the actual target, or was she collateral damage?

“... så længe de civile tabstal ikke ligefrem overstiger de 6.000 omkomne efter attentatet på WTC, kan de accepteres som collateral damage ...”

As long as the civilian number of casualties doesn't exceed the 6000 that died after the attack on the WTC, they can be accepted as collateral damage.

CEFR level