Pakistan: US Put Drone Strikes on Hold After November Killings

No Confirmation From US, But No Strikes Reported Either

Speaking today in the Pakistani Senate, retired Army General Javed Ashraf Qazi, the head of the Senate Defense Committee, says the United States has halted its drone campaign against Pakistan’s tribal areas.

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.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.