In February 2011 the Bureau began investigating CIA drone strikes in Pakistan.

At that time there was a lethal US drone strike in Pakistan every four days or so, and there had been one hundred and eighty drone strikes there since Barack Obama became president. The US was publicly denying the drone strike campaign.

On August 6 2014 the Bureau recorded the 339th drone strike in Pakistan of President Obama’s presidency. The drone campaign in Pakistan, which is conducted by the CIA, remains an official secret.

In June 2012, Obama declassified the campaigns in Yemen and Somalia – but details of the attacks remain shrouded in mystery. The US has declined to release even the most basic details about the strikes, such as when or where they take place. As a result we also rarely know who or what they hit.

But a growing number of voices have been calling for transparency.

Follow Victoria Parsons on Twitter. Sign up for monthly updates from the Bureau’s Covert War project, subscribe to our podcast, Drone News from the Bureau, and follow Drone Reads on Twitter to see what the team is reading. Homepage photo: White House