The Trump administration is considering overturning a key Obama-era policy which sought to make counter-terrorism operations more transparent, even as it ramps them up.
A deadline for the release of figures on civilian casualties passed yesterday. This annual release was part of an executive order put in place by the Obama administration.
A National Security Council spokesperson told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that the Executive Order (EO) was under review and could be modified or rescinded. To read more about this, click here.
US Drone Strikes in Afghanistan in April 2018
| Bureau data | Afghanistan |
| Confirmed US strikes: | 17* |
| Total killed: | 9 |
| Civilians reported killed: | 0 |
The US announced that strikes against Taliban revenue streams had expanded to western Afghanistan for the first time.
Under new targeting authorities given last year, the US has been hitting the Taliban narcotics industry. This has focused on Helmand, in the south of the country.
On April 5, a US strike killed a senior commander of Afghanistan’s branch of Islamic State and his bodyguard in Faryab province.
* This is likely to be only a fraction of the actual number of strikes. We have not had figures from RS; therefore these are the strikes we found via open source material.
**While the US has given us the number of strikes carried out in April, there were no additional details provided.
To see the complete Afghan dataset, click here.
Source: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Disclaimer: Views expressed on this blog are not necessarily endorsed or supported by the Center for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad.
