Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday to end drone strikes in Pakistan, touching on a sore subject just as relations between the two countries improve after years of suspicion over Afghanistan and the U.S. counterterrorism fight.
“I … brought up the issue of drones in our meeting, emphasizing the need for an end to such strikes,” Sharif told reporters after meeting with Obama in the Oval Office.
But the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that while top Pakistani officials denounce the U.S. drone program, they have secretly endorsed it for years and are routinely given classified briefings on targets and casualties.
The Post, citing secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos, said that markings on some documents indicated they were prepared by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center so they could be shown to Pakistani officials. The documents discuss strikes that killed dozens of alleged al Qaeda operatives and in which they say no civilians were killed, Reuters informs.
