Donald Trump Doubled the Number of US Airstrikes

Yamanyoon-25 Sep 2017

Donald Trump has more than doubled the number of covert US airstrikes in Yemen compared with the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency, new estimates show.

The rise, combined with Trump’s rollback of Obama-era safeguards, has sparked renewed concern from MPs and human rights groups over the UK’s role in US counter-terrorism operations, in Yemen and other countries with which Britain is not at war.

The number of covert American airstrikes in Yemen more than doubled in 2017, rising to 93 compared with a total of 40 the previous year, according to figures from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which tracks US air and drone operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen.