Obama administration agrees to informal drone halt in Pakistan

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-pakistan-drone-pause-20140205,0,640524.story



Protesters against U.S. drone strikes shout slogans during a rally in Multan, Pakistan.

Obama administration agrees to informal drone halt in Pakistan
By Ken Dilanian
February 5, 2014, 12:16 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration has agreed to Pakistan's request to stop drone-launched missile strikes except on Al Qaeda operational leaders while Islamabad pursues peace talks with local Taliban militants, U.S. officials say.

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

Those targets are fewer these days because Al Qaeda’s leadership in northwest Pakistan is increasingly thin on the ground after more than a decade of drone strikes and other counter-terrorism 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 after U.S.-led NATO forces mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the border with Afghanistan. That strike worsened the diplomatic tensions with Washington that began with the cross-border raid that killed Bin Laden.