US drone strikes in Pakistan on longest pause

The covert US drone programme that hunts al Qaeda and allied terrorists operating in Tribal Areas has entered its longest pause since the strikes were ramped up in summer of 2008. The US has not launched a predator or reaper airstrike against terrorist targets in Pakistan for 33 days, according to statistics. The last strike took place on November 16 in the Ramzak area of North Waziristan. US officials have previously said that the programme is “on hold” due to deteriorating relations between the US and Pakistan from fallout of a cross-border incident by NATO forces in the tribal agency of Mohmand that resulted in deaths of 24 soldiers.
One US official told The Long War Journal there is a concern that another US strike on Pakistani soil will “push US-Pakistan relations past the point of no return.” Another official said, however, that the US would attack if “an extremely high value target pops up. The 33-day-long gap in strikes is the longest since another pause that took place in the spring of 2009 (28 days, May 16 to June 14). US officials attributed that gap to operational issues with the unmanned aircraft. The third-and fourth-longest pauses also took place earlier this year, during a time of high tensions with Pakistan. A 27-day-long gap in strikes from January 23 to February 20 occurred after CIA contractor Raymond Davis killed two Pakistanis in Lahore. The US ended the pause in strikes the day Davis was returned to the US. And a 25-day-long gap from March 17 to April 13 took place after the US killed dozens of Pakistanis in a strike in North Waziristan. That strike killed a senior Taliban leader and 11 fighters along with an estimated 30 tribesmen who were said to be negotiating mineral rights in the area.
US officials had previously denied that the two pauses earlier this year were due to tensions with Pakistan and instead cited operational issues with the unmanned aircraft, to include “weather.” There have been significant pauses during that seasonal time period in previous years. But one US official told the Journal that the two long pauses earlier this year were indeed related to political problems with Pakistan encountered during those time frames. “If it isn’t clear by now, the airstrikes targeting AQAM (al Qaeda and allied movements) have been constrained by deteriorating relations with Pakistan,” a senior US official said.