The strike is the second in the past 24 hours. Another attack hit North Waziristan on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and destroying a house in Thapi, a village on the outskirts of Miramshah.

The identities of the 10 killed in the earlier attack are even less apparent than the first one, as villagers say everyone was burned beyond recognition. Once again, however, they were listed as “suspected terrorists.”

The restart of the US drone strikes last month supposedly came as part of a secret deal with the Pakistani government to limit the frequency of strikes. It seems, however, that this isn’t necessarily the case.

Among them is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA), the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, who during a committee today reminded members not to discuss the existence of the supposedly “classified” drone program, while expressing annoyance that “various parts of the executive branch may be doing somewhat the opposite.”

Begun under President Bush, the drone war in Pakistan has escalated enormously since President Obama took office, killing thousands of people in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Overwhelmingly, the victims of these strikes are anonymous “suspects,” tribesmen who remain unnamed and with no evidence ever presented that they were in any targeted terrorist groups. The exact civilian death toll will likely never be known, but the best evidence suggests that a solid majority of the victims were innocent civilians. The number of militant “leaders” confirmed killed is miniscule, particularly when one considers how many of the names belong to targets who have supposedly been killed multiple times or who remain at large.

The identities of the slain are as yet unverified, but reports from locals say that they were believed to have been from Turkmenistan. The US attack also damaged a nearby home, though it does not appear to have caused any casualties among those inside.

The attack is the third US drone strike of 2012, after a pair of attacks on January 10th and 12th. It is the first attack since a statement last week by the Pakistani government claiming US drones would be shot down; there was no indication an attempt to do so was made.

The US had halted all attacks after a November 26 attack by US warplanes on Pakistani military bases. The US has speculated that the previous attacks this month killed a top al-Qaeda leader and Tehreek-e Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, though Hakimullah has been killed no less than eight times already in the past year and a half and TTP officials insist he is still alive.

Readers may remember Hakimullah from the last seven times officials have claimed he was killed, most of them “confirmed kills.” Hakimullah was first slain in August 2009, and slain six addition times between then and February 2010. He appeared in May 2010 to report that despite being killed so many times he was “basically ok.”

As usual, officials cited “intercepted radio communication” in their speculation, because no one ever actually identified any of the victims of the US attacks and they simply hope that they got somebody they meant to get.

And, just as usual, the TTP has already denied the death, with spokesman Asimullah Mehsud saying that Hakimullah wasn’t even in the area where the strike occurred. Indeed the last reports on North Waziristan were that the TTP leadership had agreed to leave the region at the behest of the Bahadur faction, and that they had all moved to South Waziristan, Kurram and Orakzai.

On Monday it was announced that the US was close to a deal with the Pakistani government on resuming the drone strikes, with reported conditions including keeping the strikes less frequent and restricting them to a smaller portion of the tribal areas.

By Tuesday the first strike came, with four people slain and several others wounded. The identities of the victims remain unknown, and likely will remain unknown. It was the first strike since November, when the US halted its attacks in the wake of killing 24 Pakistani soldiers in an attack on military bases.

The fact that the second strike came so soon after the first one must inevitably raise the question of whether a deal to “pare back” the strikes was actually made or if the situation has simply returned to business as usual.

Gen. Qazi says that the US stopped the drone campaign after the November 26 attack on a pair of Pakistani military bases, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. He reasoned they don’t “want to aggravate the situation any further.”

Pakistani officials have been suggesting the drone war was going to end at any rate, with a new military policy deploying Pakistani air defense assets to the border and orders to shoot down future US drones over their airspace.

So far the US hasn’t confirmed any policy change on the drone war, and such an announcement may not be forthcoming as officials have rarely even conceded to the campaign’s existence. Still, there have been no reported drone strikes in weeks, which would be unusual if some sort of policy change hasn’t been made.

The report cites a new defense policy by Gen. Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s military chief, and would be in keeping with Pakistan’s decision last week to deploy air defense assets along the border with Afghanistan.

The deployments along the Afghan border come in the wake of a late November attack by US warplanes against a pair of Pakistani military bases in Mohmand Agency, though at the time there was no indication that it would extend to the constant US drone presence.

The drone strikes have killed thousands over the course of the past few years, and have come under considerable criticism for the large civilian death toll involved. It is ironic that after years of paying lip-service to the crisis the Pakistani government might finally halt the drones in response to an attack by manned aircraft.

The identities of the slain was entirely unclear today, but all were termed “suspects” by local security officials. One uncomfirmed report had the slain including “foreigners” though other reports said all the slain were tribesmen.

The attack comes just one day after an attack on a pair of homes in South Waziristan killed 18, and with seven more killed the day before the three day death toll is now at least 33.

The strikes have been loudly criticized by key opposition figure Imran Khan, but so far the Zardari government has not commented. Given the growing scandal relating to the Zardari government’s cozy relation with the US, the Zardari government is likely trying to avoid being seen as directly involved in any situation.

Among the slain were at least four “commanders” of the TTP, though none of the commanders named appear to have been mentioned in any prominent reporting on the TTP before their deaths today. The identities of the other slain are unknown.

The attacks were condemned by Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan, a popular opposition politician who has made opposition to the drone strikes a major issue in his party’s platform. Khan said that if he was voted into power he would ensure the US stopped the attacks, adding that there is “nothing more important than restoring Pakistan’s sovereignty.”

Though US officials have insisted that the strikes are mostly accurate, studies have shown a massive number of civilians killed in the US drone strikes, including a large number of tribesmen brushed off by the Zardari government as “suspects” without any suspicion beyond being bombed.

The identities of the slain are unclear, but they were all termed “suspects” by officials. Some suggested they might be linked to the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), though this would be unusual as the group is not generally active in North Waziristan.

The attack comes as tribesmen are increasingly petitioning the Zardari government to do something about the constant drone strikes, and as the Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI), an opposition party led by Imran Khan, is organizing a general strike in the region to protest the lack of action against the attacks.

The strikes have become an increasing issue as the Zardari government, though claiming it is opposed to them continues to seek US support and has bragged about its own launching of air strikes across the region.