Obama Administration Agrees to Informal Drone Halt in Pakistan

The Obama administration has agreed to Pakistan’s request to stop drone-launched missile strikes except on al-Qaida operational leaders while Islamabad pursues peace talks with local Taliban terrosists, U.S. officials say. The informal pause began in late December.

The stand-down on targeted killings of Taliban leaders in Pakistan “doesn’t impact our list for core al-Qaida,” a U.S. official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity about a covert program. “They still have a green light on al-Qaida targets.”

Those targets are fewer these days because al-Qaida’s leadership in northwest Pakistan is increasingly thin on the ground after more than a decade of drone strikes and other counterterrorism operations, including the killing by Navy SEALs of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

The CIA has not launched a drone strike in Pakistan since Dec. 25 — the longest lull since a six-week halt in November 2011.

The informal agreement to sharply curtail drone strikes was first reported Tuesday by The Washington Post. The pause apparently does not affect surveillance flights.

The CIA declined comment Wednesday. A senior Obama administration official said the United States is “continuing to aggressively identify and disrupt terrorist threats in the Afghan war theater and outside of areas of active hostilities. … This remains our policy.”

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the February 6th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.