In July, the White House made a dual announcement about drone strikes: first, that fewer than 116 civilians have been killed by drones throughout President Obama's entire tenure, a figure independent observers say is far too low to be remotely accurate; second, that Obama signed an executive order mandating greater transparency on civilian casualties going forward, including an annual death toll report.
Now, a coalition of civil liberties and human rights organizations has called on Obama to make good on his pledge. "We write to request that, as part of a robust effort to implement the Executive Order this fall, your administration investigate 10 past drone strikes as well as other strikes where there are credible allegations of harm to civilians," the group said in a letter sent Thursday. The strikes in question took place between 2009 and 2014 in Pakistan and Yemen and are alleged to have killed as many as 41 innocents in a single hit.
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