US military uses Project Maven AI in airstrikes in Iraq and Iran
The US military deployed Project Maven, an AI-enabled targeting system, in airstrikes in Iraq in February 2024 and Iran in February 2026, resulting in documented civilian deaths including a 20-year-old student in Iraq and reportedly over 165 people, mostly students, in an Iranian girls' school. Anthropic refused to allow its AI technology to support fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance, leading the Trump administration to blacklist it in February 2026.
What happened
In early February 2024, the US military carried out airstrikes in Iraq using AI assistance from Project Maven to identify targets. An investigation by The Independent and Airwars found that Abdul-Rahman al-Rawi, a 20-year-old student, was killed in the strikes, and a senior US official acknowledged the use of AI, though US Central Command later said it 'did not know' whether AI had been involved.
US airstrikes across Iran in February 2026 reportedly used Palantir's Maven Smart System (MSS) to identify targets. The US military acknowledged responsibility for strikes including one on a girls' school where Iranian authorities reported more than 165 deaths, though the US may not be recording its use of AI in individual airstrikes.
Reported impact
Abdul-Rahman al-Rawi, a 20-year-old student, was killed in airstrikes in Iraq in early February 2024 that used AI-assisted targeting. Airstrikes in Iran in February 2026 reportedly killed more than 165 people, mostly students, in an attack on a girls' school.
The intense bombing campaign using AI targeting saw the US and Israel hit more targets in Iran in the first 100 hours than the US-led Coalition had against ISIS in the first six months, according to analysis by Airwars.
Index analysis
Jessica Dorsey, a professor of international law specialising in AI warfare at Utrecht University, stated that 'A state has responsibility to know if it has used AI on any of their strikes' and that commanders should have direct access to intelligence their strikes are based on to interrogate targets and ensure positive identification.
In February 2026, the Trump administration blacklisted Anthropic PBC, citing it as a supply chain risk after the company refused to allow its technology to be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons systems, creating tension over the scope of military AI applications.
Governance controls
Project Maven was established by the Pentagon in 2017 as the Algorithmic Warfare Cross Functional Team and was adopted by the National Geospatial Agency (NGA), which uses computer vision algorithms to locate and identify targets from satellite imagery, video and radar.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.