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Which countries have seen the most US bombing campaigns since 2009?
Executive Summary
Since 2009 the largest sustained US bombing campaigns have concentrated in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, with intensive counterterrorism and drone campaigns also in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and episodic strikes in Libya. Data sets emphasize different measures—number of strikes, weapons dropped, or bombs and missiles tally—so ranking varies by metric and time window, but the consistent pattern across reports is heavy US airpower focus on the Afghanistan/Iraq/Syria theater and high drone activity in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia [1] [2] [3].
1. Why Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria dominate the bomb counts — the long war in three countries
Multiple compilations identify Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria as the top recipients of US bombardment in the post-2001 era and specifically since 2009, driven by declared wars, major air campaigns and later counter‑ISIS operations. A 2022 tally that aggregates US Airpower Summaries and other datasets reports that Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria together account for the bulk of bombs and missiles the United States has used since 2001, with Iraq and Afghanistan receiving especially high totals and Syria receiving tens of thousands of munitions in the 2014–2020 period [1]. ACLED’s 2024 factsheet underscores continuing US strikes in Iraq and Syria linked to engagements with Iran‑backed groups and counter‑ISIS operations, while noting persistent operations against Houthi targets in Yemen [3]. These sources show a multi‑year, high‑intensity pattern of airstrikes in that central theater, making those three countries the clearest “most bombed” candidates by aggregate munitions and operational tempo.
2. Drone war and covert strikes shift the leaderboard — Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia
When measuring the number and frequency of covert strikes and drone operations, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia emerge as major loci of US bombing since 2009. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism data summarized for Obama’s terms documents hundreds of strikes in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen—reporting 563 strikes across those countries during Obama’s two terms—and highlights the centrality of CIA‑directed drone operations in Pakistan early in the period [2]. The Costs of War project expands the map of US counterterrorism air activity through 2021–2023 to 78 countries, noting continued air strikes in a handful of countries and a persistent global counterterrorism footprint that concentrates lethal strike activity in Yemen and Somalia alongside operations in the Middle East [4]. These sources show different metrics (covert strikes, drone cadence) flip the prominence away from conventional theaters toward irregular‑war hotspots.
3. Libya and episodic campaign countries — bursts of heavy bombing, not sustained attrition
Libya and select other states appear as episodic but intense recipients of US airpower rather than long‑running bombardment sites. Coverage of the Obama administration’s interventions lists Libya among seven countries bombed since 2009, reflecting the 2011 campaign and later limited strikes [5] [6]. ACLED and related monitoring focus on Middle Eastern engagements but classify Libya as a site of intermittent US action rather than the continuous bombing seen in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan [3]. These sources reveal that short, concentrated air campaigns can create high local intensity without shifting aggregate rankings when the metric spans many years, which explains why Libya shows up on lists but not at the top of cumulative munitions tallies.
4. Counting methods matter — strikes, munitions, and time windows change the answer
Datasets use three principal measures: number of named strikes, bombs and missiles dropped, and geographically bounded counterterrorism operations. The Bureau and investigative reporting count strikes and civilian casualty estimates, yielding high strike counts in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia during certain administrations [2]. Aggregate munitions totals reported in 2022 place Afghanistan and Iraq at the very top by bombs dropped, with Syria also high [1]. ACLED’s 2024 factsheet uses incident‑by‑incident tracking of US strikes and counter‑strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, emphasizing recent spike dynamics tied to regional conflicts [3]. Because timeframe and counting rules materially alter rankings, any authoritative claim about “most bombed since 2009” must specify the metric and window.
5. What the different sources agree on and where they diverge
All sources agree the US has maintained a broad global bombing footprint since 2009, with persistent heavy activity in the Middle East and active drone programs in South and East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula [4] [1] [3]. They diverge on ranking order when comparing covert strike counts versus total munitions: covert‑strike tallies elevate Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia in Obama‑era years [2], while munitions‑based counts emphasize Afghanistan and Iraq as the largest recipients over the broader 2001–2020 span [1]. ACLED and Costs of War provide the most recent operational snapshots through 2023–2024 showing continued concentration in Iraq, Syria and Yemen amid a global map of lower‑level activity [4] [3]. These convergences and tensions explain why answers vary across reputable datasets even as they point to the same core group of countries.