Up to 116 civilians have been killed accidentally by drone strikes in countries the US is not at war with, the Obama administration has claimed.
Between 64 and 116 innocent civilians have died in 473 strikes, according to the official figures
These deaths are in addition to the "combatants" the government says it has killed, a number it put at between 2,372 and 2,581.
The totals includes those killed in Yemen, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and other countries in Africa.
The number is drastically lower than many of the estimates from non-government organisations (NGOs).
The Bureau for Investigative Journalism (BIJ) in London, which tracks attacks by US drones, estimates 634 civilian lives have been lost in Pakistan alone since 2009.
A lawyer at human rights organisation Reprieve put the figure of innocent deaths at more than 4,000.
Jennifer Gibson told the BIJ: “For three years now, President Obama has been promising to shed light on the CIA’s covert drone programme. Today, he had a golden opportunity to do just that. Instead, he chose to do the opposite.
"He published numbers that are hundreds lower than even the lowest estimates by independent organisations. The only thing those numbers tell us is that this administration simply doesn’t know who it has killed."
The much-anticipated figures do not include the numbers of civilian deaths in countries where the US is at war. These consist of unintended deaths in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The White House issued a statement saying the government has information not available to NGOs.
“First, although there are inherent limitations on determining the precise number of combatant and non-combatant deaths, particularly when operating in non-permissive environments, the US Government uses post-strike methodologies that have been refined and honed over years and that use information that is generally unavailable to non-government organisations," it said.
