This contrasts slightly with reports collated by the Bureau – we recorded 49 counter-terrorism strikes in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan in 2016, killing four to six civilians.

The White House began publishingcasualty data on its counterterrorism operations last year amid calls for more transparencyfrom civil society organisations including the Bureau. The numbers are not broken down by country however, making it hard explain differences between official figures andour data.

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) statement did not specify where 2016’s strikes occurred, but said that areas of active hostilities included Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

One of the civilian deaths recorded by the Bureau took place in the restive Pakistani region of Balochistan. According to the victim’s family, a drone hit taxi driver Mohammed Azam while he transported Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, unaware of Mansour’s identity. Azam’s family launched a criminal caseagainst the US demanding accountability for his death.

The Bureau also recorded reports of three civilians killed in an attack on what the US described as an al Shabaab camp in Somalia on April 11-12. Witnesses and local officials said the strikes actually hit a village under the control of the militants.

The Bureau put this versionofevents to a Pentagon spokesperson at the time but were told there were no reports of civilian casualties.

The DNI statement said that "no discrepancies” were identified between its post-strike assessments and credible reporting from non-governmental organisations about civilian deaths resulting from these strikes.

The Bureau recorded the deaths of 362-507people, including the four to six civilians, as a result of US strikes outside areas of active hostilities last year. The US government put the figure of "combatants” killed in counterterrorism strikes at 431-441.

Follow theBureau’s dedicated drone war Twitter feed: @dronereads

Photo of unmanned US predator aerial vehicle with a hellfire missile attached via US Air Force

Source-The Bureau of Investigative Journalism