By Nina Golgowski
Daily Mail
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan for the last six weeks have been suspended Washington acknowledged Saturday following the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers last month.
Earlier in the week the chief of Pakistan’s defense committee acknowledged Washington’s paused drone strikes but have only now admitted it through an official with the Obama administration, according to CNN.
The strikes have been suspended as to not ‘worsen’ the already strained ties with Islamabad following the deadly November raid along the Afghan border.
It was during a November 26th NATO raid at the Pakistani army boarder outpost where the soldiers were killed.
Javed Ashraf Qazi said that he believes the lull in the strikes would at this point only be broken if there was a confirmed report of a high profile target.
That’s according to The Long War Journal, a website that tracks the strikes.
It says the 33-day break is the longest ever since the CIA’s covert operations began in 2004 against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions along the Afghan border.
Battle: A clash between Pakistanis and Americans along the Afghanistan border in November resulted in the deaths of 24 soldiers, while both country’s have filed contrasting reports of what happenedOther possibilities suggested for the suspension are poor weather and further information needed on new targets.
Since the November 26th killing an investigation by the U.S. has concluded that their troops were fired upon near the Pakistani border in Afghanistan and their response was in self defense.
Pakistani review has said it was the other way around.
Two intelligence officials with Pakistan, speaking to CNN without their names revealed due to clearance reasons, said that their country’s own investigation contradicted their U.S.’
‘Every Pakistani soldier knows that the Taliban doesn’t have gunships and AC-130s,’ one of the two told CNN.
‘But that’s not the point. The point is that they contend that we fired first. They’re wrong. They fired first. We responded. And then they called in the air support, and proceeded to attack us at length,’ they stated.
‘The (Department of Defense’s) findings are strange, and contradict what we have communicated so far to the Americans. This report is not good news,’ the second official stated.
According to CNN, the results of the U.S. investigation have been shared with both Pakistani and Afghan governments along with members of NATO.
