Washington (CNN) US intelligence officials will no longer be required to publicly disclose the number of civilians killed in airstrikes against terrorist targets "outside areas of active hostilities" due to a new executive order issued by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

However, given the secrecy surrounding counterterrorism strikes conducted by US intelligence agencies, it is unclear whether Wednesday's announcement will result in less transparency about how the US conducts such operations.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council declined to clarify when asked for more information by CNN.

Specifically, Trump's order lifts an Obama-era mandate for intelligence professionals to provide an "unclassified summary of the number of strikes" as well as "assessments of combatant and non combatant deaths resulting from those strikes" each year.

The most recent published report , which was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in January of 2017, said "US government" conducted 54 strikes outside of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan during 2016, resulting in one civilian death.

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