Drone Strikes Hit Three Targets Kill 17 in Pakistan

The Voice of America broadcast service quotes Pakistani intelligence officials saying “three U.S. drone strikes have killed at least 17 militants in the country's northwest tribal region.”

The Long War Journal confirms that “[t]he US has carried out 11 Predator strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas since US Navy SEALs and CIA operatives raided Osama bin Laden's safehouse in Abbottabad, far from Pakistan's tribal areas, on the early morning of May 2.”

On Saturday the Wall Street Journal carried an article highlighting the split in the Obama administration over the Central Intelligence Agency's targeted-killing program. In opposition are the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and other top military leaders seeking to rein in the CIA’s aggressive pace of strikes.

"WASHINGTON—Fissures have opened within the Obama administration over the drone program targeting militants in Pakistan, with the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and some top military leaders pushing to rein in the Central Intelligence Agency's aggressive pace of strikes.

Such a move would roll back, at least temporarily, a program that President Barack Obama dramatically expanded soon after taking office, making it one of the U.S.'s main weapons against the Pakistan-based militants fighting coalition troops in Afghanistan.

The program has angered Pakistan, a key ally in the fight against Islamist militants. The debate over drones comes as the two sides try to repair relations badly frayed by the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis by CIA contractor Raymond Davis in January, a wave of particularly lethal drone strikes following Mr. Davis's release from Pakistani custody in March, and the clandestine U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

The White House National Security Council debated a slowdown in drone strikes in a meeting on Thursday, a U.S. official said. At the meeting, CIA Director Leon Panetta made the case for maintaining the current program, the official said, arguing that it remains the U.S.'s best weapon against al Qaeda and its allies.

The result of the meeting—the first high-level debate within the Obama administration over how aggressively to pursue the CIA's targeted-killing program—was a decision to continue the program as is for now, the U.S. official said.”