A report by not-for-profit Airwars has found a 54 percent drop in strikes across all five U.S. conflict zones during President Biden’s first year in office.
The number of declared U.S. strikes across Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen declined to 439 by mid-December from 951 in 2020, Airwars said in a Dec. 22 news release.
The figure is “by far the lowest declared annual US strike number since at least 2004, and reflects a broader trend of declining US actions in recent years,” the report reads.
Prior to troop withdrawal on Aug. 31st, a total of 372 U.S. strikes were carried out in Afghanistan in 2021. But removing Afghanistan-related strikes, data shows that the U.S. has ordered 67 strikes across the world this year.
The number of air and artillery strikes declared by Operation Inherent Resolve, a U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, fell to 58 by early December from 201 actions the previous year, reflecting a 70 percent reduction in declared strikes.