The U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016, according to
new
figures from the Council on Foreign Relations. That number marks a 13
percent increase from the number of bombs dropped in 2015. As the
Graphiq data visualization shows,
U.S. airstrikes were conducted in seven countries throughout the year,
although the majority of these — nearly 93 percent — occurred in Syria and
Iraq.
The number of U.S. bombed dropped in Afghanistan also increased in 2016
to a total of 1,337. However, U.S. bombing totals decreased in Yemen,
Somalia and Pakistan in the last two years.
The rise in U.S. bombing abroad coincides with
increased violence by the Islamic State, which remains the primary
target of U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East and Africa. The U.S.
engaged in military campaigns against several Islamic State strongholds
in 2016, including the Iraqi city of Mosul and the city of Raqqa in Syria.
ISIS attacks also escalated, with massacres occurring on a larger global
scale.
The only new country to make the list in 2016 is Libya, which has been
embroiled in fighting and political turmoil since the fall of its
longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The U.S.
launched airstrikes in Libya against the Islamic State in August, as
part of a larger offensive against the terrorist group outside of Iraq and
Syria.
While the Council on Foreign Relations used data from the Department of
Defense in their estimates, the numbers should be taken with a grain of
salt. Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the council, notes in his report:
“This estimate is undoubtedly low, considering reliable data is only
available for airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.” Moreover,
according to the Pentagon’s definition, a single “strike”
can actually involve multiple bombs. Lastly, the estimates do not include
U.S.-supplied bombs dropped by other countries, likely a sizable figure as
the U.S. is the
largest exporter of weapons in the world.