President Donald Trump is reportedly ordering airstrikes at five times the pace former President Barack Obama did.
Writing in a Council of Foreign Relations blog post last month, senior CFR fellow Micah Zenko reported Trump has ordered 75 drone strikes or raids in non-battlefield settings during his first 74 days in office – or about a strike a day on average.
Obama signed off on 542 such strikes during the 2,920 days he spent in office, or about one strike every 5.4 days, according to Zenko's tally.
The increased tempo of airstrikes appears to be part of a broader expansion of military efforts abroad under Trump, according to Business Insider, which flagged Zenko's blog.
In Iraq, the US-led coalition has reportedly streamlined the process for calling in strikes, based on directives issued in December and recent weeks that have given over more direct control to personnel on the ground and near the front line.
In neighboring Syria, where the U.S.-led coalition is also aiding local groups in their fight against ISIS, U.S. personnel have recently expanded their footprint.
And the Trump administration's March 2 drone strike in Pakistan was the first such strike in that country since May 2016.
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