New analysis questions constraint on US drone strikes

Six months after President Obama laid out US rules for using armed drones, a Bureau analysis shows that covert drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan have killed more people than in the six months before the speech.

Each drone strike kills more people on average in both countries. The number of strikes fell across the two countries in the six months after the speech compared with the six months before, yet the overall death toll increased.

This analysis will raise questions about how much Obama’s new rulesconstrain the drone programme, as he claimed it would in his speech.

From The Bureau Investigates