Updated on
Summary
CIA is expanding drone assaults inside Pakistan after it got approval from White House to do so, an American newspaper has claimed. According to The New York Times, the White House has authorized an expansion of the CIAs drone program in Pakistans tribal areas to parallel the President Barack Obamas decision, announced Tuesday, to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. American officials are talking with Pakistan about the possibility of striking in Baluchistan for the first time a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas because that is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to hide, the paper reproted. By increasing covert pressure on Al Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan, while ground forces push back the Talibans advances in Afghanistan, American officials hope to eliminate any haven for militants in the region, the paper said. About 80 missile attacks from drones in less than two years have killed more than 400 enemy fighters, the paper qouted American officials as saying.
