Drone strikes only after consulting Pakistan : Obama

July 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has asked Pakistan to publicly accept its tacit approval to the drone strikes being carried out in its 'lawless' tribal region along the Afghan border, as its consistent denial on the issue is creating new tensions with Washington. According to The Dawn, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, told a Congressional hearing recently that the attacks would not have taken place without the 'tacit approval' of the Pakistani leadership, so it was wrong on Islamabad's part to blame the US for the missile hits.

June 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The missile strikes being carried out by US drones has unsettled Al-Qaeda and other terror groups operating the tribal belt along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, US intelligence and military officials have claimed. They believe Al-Qaeda has suffered major losses in the attacks, but still remains a potent threat to the world.

May 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - : A key US lawmaker has criticized Pakistan for maintaining a double faced commitment over the US drone strikes inside its geographical territory with condemning the attacks publicly and approving them privately. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin said Pakistan must publicly admit that it supports the drone strikes being carried out against the Taliban and other extremists in the lawless tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Notwithstanding the threat from Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud the United States is planning to extend Predator drone strikes to Balochistan, a reports has claimed. According to The New York Times, the Obama Administration is planning to extend missile attacks to Balochistan also, unless Pakistan takes stern action against terror hideouts and training camps.

April 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Former US Presidential candidate and Republican Party Senator from Arizona John Mc Gain has said that the US aid to Pakistan may eventually go in vain. Skeptic about Pakistan's utilization of the US assistance, Mc Gain viewed a large part of the aid failing to reach people who are in real need of it.

March 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan senate committee on national security has declared that the continuing of US drone attacks on Pakistani territory is a failure of the government's foreign policy. The committee made this observation while expressing its displeasure with US President Barack Obama for not announcing a halt to drone attacks when he revealed his new Afghanistan-Pakistan policy on Friday.

March 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US National Security Adviser General James Jones has said that Washington and Islamabad will decide 'collaboratively' whether to continue US drone strikes inside Pakistan as they were turning out to be effective against militants hiding there. General Jones defended the drones strikes as effective and said they were causing low collateral damage in an interview after President Barak Obama announced his new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

March 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrook has said that the insurgency in Pakistan along the Afghan border is the most daunting situation that the US is facing presently. Talking to media persons right after President Barack Obama unveiled a new policy for fghanistan, Holbrooke said that the US is very concerned about dealing with the problem on the western border of Pakistan.

March 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States is no mood to discontinue the Predator drone attacks in along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as it is busy in preparing a list of new targets for the strike. According to US officials, the list is being prepared as a part of the Obama Administration's decision to revamp its strategy for the region.

March 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A unmanned US drone has killed at least 12 people in Pakistan's Kurram district near the Afghan border, a local official said. "Taleban militants have sealed off the area and are retrieving bodies from the rubble," said a security official.

March 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least eight people were killed Sunday in a suspected US drone attack in Pakistan's restive tribal region, Geo TV reported. Two back-to-back missiles were fired from a US drone that hit a house in Sararogha area of tribal district South Waziristan, the stronghold of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

February 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - CIA Director Leon Panetta has said that the US aerial attacks against Al Qaeda and other extremist strongholds inside Pakistan have been successful and would continue despite concerns about a popular Pakistani backlash. He said the drone strikes have so far turned successful in accomplishing goals.

February 17th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan is allowing the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to secretly use an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch attacks on its own militants, the Times reported Wednesday. A Times investigation found that the CIA has been using the airfield in Shamsi, around 50 km from the Afghan border, for at least year - despite claims by Pakistan that its air bases are not used for drone attacks.

February 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least 26 people were killed Saturday when a suspected US drone fired two missiles on a militant hideout in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, an intelligence official said. Seven people were also injured in the attack in South Waziristan, a known sanctuary of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants launching cross-border attacks on international troops in Afghanistan.

January 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has no agreement with the US that allowed drone attacks inside its territory, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday. 'There is no understanding between Pakistan and the United States on predator attacks,' said Muhammad Sadiq in response to the statement by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that US would continue such attacks against militants and that Pakistan was aware of this.