U.S. Strikes in Syria

How the UCDP Counts Work

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) codes an event as an incident in which armed force by an organized actor against another organized actor, or against civilians, results in at least one direct death at a specific place and date. Each event belongs to a dyad: two sides, each a government or an organized group. These pages count every event dated on or after January 20, 2009 in Iraq, Syria or Yemen whose side A or side B names "Government of United States of America", alone or inside a joint side such as "Government of United Kingdom, Government of United States of America".

UCDP names the U.S. side only when U.S. forces are a primary party to the dyad. In the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, UCDP codes the Iraqi or Syrian government, or a local partner force, as the primary party and the U.S.-led coalition as a secondary supporting party; UCDP event rows carry primary sides only, so coalition strikes in that campaign appear in UCDP under the partner's dyad and are counted here only when UCDP names the U.S. directly. The list of operations and strike days from U.S. government releases covers that gap with the official record.

When U.S. forces act together with another state, UCDP records one joint side; an event in such a dyad (for example, U.S. and U.K. strikes on the Sanaa authorities, which UCDP labels "Government of Yemen (North Yemen)", or the 2026 dyads that join the U.S. and Israel) is counted once here and cannot be split between the partners. Some joint-side events are attacks on the U.S. side by the other party rather than U.S. strikes; the UCDP dyad column shows which pairing each row belongs to.

Fatalities. "Best" is the UCDP best estimate of direct deaths in the event, across all sides and civilians. "Low" and "High" are the UCDP low and high estimates. Totals add the per-event figures.

Datasets. UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset version 26.1 covers events through December 31, 2025. Later events come from the monthly UCDP Candidate Events Dataset (versions 26.0.1 to 26.0.8, through August 31, 2026); these are preliminary and UCDP may revise or drop them. The pages use Candidate rows UCDP has coded "Clear", one row per UCDP event ID, taking the latest monthly version. Counts are rebuilt from the UCDP files when they change.

Administrations. Events are assigned by start date, with each administration running from its inauguration (January 20, 2009; January 20, 2017; January 20, 2021; January 20, 2025) to the next.

Operations list. Each row gives the date, the name or description the release uses, the targets in the release's own terms, and a link to the Department of Defense, U.S. Central Command or White House release. Group links appear only where the release names the group.

Citation: Middle East Forum, Shia Militia Tracker, U.S. Strikes, accessed October 13, 2026, https://militias.meforum.org/strikes/. See also Data sources and method.