The Trump administration reportedly will not follow an Obama-era executive order that requires it to release a yearly report on the number of civilians and enemy fighters killed by U.S. anti-terrorism strikes.

The report, due Tuesday, was first set up by former President Obama in 2016 as a way to provide more transparency on drone strikes in the Middle East.

“The executive order that requires the civilian casualty report is under review” and could be “modified” or “rescinded,” a White House spokesman told The Washington Post.

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A White House spokesman also told the Post that there was no increase in civilian casualties in 2017.





The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) objected strongly to the story Tuesday evening, calling the administration’s decision “a dangerous low” in government and expressing skepticism over the claims of no increased casualties.

“We know from independent assessments that civilian deaths are on the rise from U.S. attacks,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a statement.

“It’s unacceptable for the government to simply refuse to release the numbers of people killed, let alone their identities, the rules governing its deadly decisions, or investigations into credibly alleged wrongful killing,” he added. “This increased secrecy about the costs and consequences of Trump’s killing policies prevents public oversight and accountability for wrongful deaths. The victims of our government’s lethal actions deserve better, as does the American public.”

Obama, in 2013, announced new rules and restrictions for drone strikes which required “near certainty” that civilians would not be harmed. The targets also had to pose a “continuing and imminent threat” to the United States.

The standards did not apply to areas where the U.S. military was involved in regular fighting, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Then, in 2016, the Defense Department was required to submit to Congress by May 1 a list of all U.S. military operations that caused civilian deaths.

President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE reportedly relaxed drone strike requirements last year, but a White House spokesman told the Post there had been no change “to the U.S. commitment to protecting civilian life.”

After it missed the deadline Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman told the Post it will deliver the report in a month.

The first such report, released in July 2016, found that up to 116 civilians were killed over seven years of strikes.

A second report in 2017 found that 441 fighters and one civilian were killed in 2016.

Independent organizations have questioned the reports’ accuracy, estimating that the reported numbers are likely hundreds lower than reality.

Watchdog groups are also skeptical of the administration’s assertion that there was no rise in civilian deaths in 2017.

Amnesty International estimated that U.S. and coalition air strikes in Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq, killed hundreds of civilians last year.

Trump has reportedly expressed little interest in the matter of civilians killed during drone strikes.

Last month, he allegedly asked a CIA official why the agency didn’t kill a terrorist target's family during a drone strike, the Post reported.

And on the campaign trail in 2015, Trump said that he would “take out” the families of terrorists.

"When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. But they say they don't care about their lives. You have to take out their families,” Trump said in late 2015.