U.S. estimates it killed up to 116 civilians in strikes

WASHINGTON — Partially lifting the secrecy that has cloaked one of the United States’ most contentious tactics for fighting terrorists, the Obama administration Friday said that it believed that air strikes it has conducted outside conventional war zones like Afghanistan have killed 64 to 116 civilian bystanders and about 2,500 members of terrorist groups.

The official civilian death count is hundreds lower than most estimates compiled by independent organizations that try to track what the government calls targeted killings in chaotic places like tribal Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.

[...] President Obama issued an executive order making civilian protection a priority and requiring the government in the future to disclose the number of civilian deaths each year.