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AUGUST 29, 2011

CIA Strikes Strain Ties With Pakistan Further

By ADAM ENTOUS And SIOBHAN GORMAN

WASHINGTON--The Central Intelligence Agency is racing to deal a death blow to al Qaeda while the network is weakened, raising concerns for some U.S. officials that the campaign of drone strikes could become so politically damaging for Pakistan's leaders that they may seek to curtail them.

U.S. officials said over the weekend that a CIA drone strike killed al Qaeda's second in command on Aug. 22, a major blow to militants in their country and a sign that American officials are pushing to slam the network while its fortunes are down.

But the strike stoked Pakistani anger over the U.S.'s aggressive unilateral pursuit of militants in their country, revealing the double-edged nature of the current drone program in which each U.S. victory takes a toll on the U.S.-Pakistani relationship. Several senior U.S. officials said there was growing fear that Pakistani leaders could move to curtail the flights in response to outcries from the Pakistani public, which believes the strikes kill civilians. U.S. officials say militants--not civilians--are killed.

The killing of Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, who was effectively al Qaeda's chief operating officer, in the rugged mountains of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, "seriously weakens al Qaeda," said Seth Jones, an al Qaeda specialist at Rand Corp., a think tank. "It doesn't push them to irrelevancy, but it probably pushes them closer to strategic defeat."

Mr. Rahman oversaw attack planning for the group, and some officials believe he played a more hands-on role than Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a unilateral mission deep inside Pakistan in May.

U.S. officials believe Mr. Rahman will be difficult to replace due to his unique operational role and close ties to affiliated groups, but say they are now monitoring al Qaeda's leaders to see how they seek to regroup and whether fractures develop.

Despite bilateral efforts to rebuild trust between the U.S. and Pakistan in the wake of the bin Laden raid, officials say Pakistan played no direct role in the operation that eliminated Mr. Rahman, underlining the poor state of U.S.-Pakistan cooperation.

A Pakistani defense official expressed frustration that Washington didn't consult with Pakistan before launching the strike.

"They tell us we have to act like allies. Always there are lectures and demands," said the Pakistani defense official. "But they don't treat us like allies."

The Pakistani official said his country's leadership--military and civilian--was increasingly frustrated at being cut out of the strikes against al Qaeda, a group with little popular or official support within Pakistan. "A one-way relationship doesn't last," the official said.

Pakistan's criticism spotlights the extent to which drone operations have lost favor among some of Pakistan's leaders, who have provided tacit approval of them for years.

The Pakistani official said that while Islamabad believes al Qaeda is in "rough" shape, last week's strike threatens to further undermine the nations' already shaky relationship, which "only makes our enemies stronger."

The U.S. is worried that if they tell the Pakistanis that a drone strike is coming someone within Pakistani intelligence could tip off the intended target. But a U.S. official said of Mr. Rahman, "There have been no complaints at senior levels from Pakistan about the death of Atiyah."

The CIA carries out two different types of drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan--those against so-called high-value targets, including Mr. Rahman, and "signature" strikes targeting Taliban foot-soldiers who criss-cross the border with Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces there.

High-value targets are added to a classified list that the CIA maintains and updates. The agency often doesn't know the names of the signature targets, but it tracks their movements and activities for hours or days before striking them, U.S. officials say.

Islamabad doesn't generally get a say over who the CIA targets and when the strikes take place, much to the chagrin of Pakistani officials.

Islamabad has let the CIA to secretly operate drones out of bases in Pakistan and gives the agency permission to operate them over certain parts of its territory. Some U.S. officials fear Pakistan could deny the CIA permission to fly the drones over the tribal areas, or could restrict the flights' geographical reach.

Pakistani officials stepped up their opposition to the drones after a series of particularly deadly signature strikes followed Pakistan's release of a CIA contractor in March and then the bin Laden raid in May.

Pakistan has privately proposed to their American counterparts moving to a dual-key approach to the strikes. Under such an approach, Islamabad would have say over who gets targeted and when. Islamabad also wants the CIA to curtail the signature strikes, which increasingly target a Pakistan-backed militia network, the Haqqanis.

U.S. officials have so far ruled out making such changes to the program. But there are growing calls within the U.S. military and State Department for the CIA to take a more "judicious" approach to the strikes in order to try to improve U.S.-Pakistan relations.

Some military leaders have privately advocated lifting the veil of official secrecy surrounding the covert CIA strikes so the U.S. can explain more openly who the targets are and what roles they have played in attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Doing so, officials say, could chip away at anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and bolster the case for continued strikes.

One U.S. official said the issue of whether Pakistan will move to cut off or severely limit the drone program "has surfaced regularly in discussions." The official cautioned, however, that at this point there isn't a "wave of worry" that has overtaken the administration.

Another U.S. official sought to play down tensions with the Pakistanis, saying that divisions "exist at the margins, but the notion that the two countries are in drastically different places on this issue is flat-out wrong." The official added, "the death of al Qaeda's number two will not prompt Pakistan to shut down counterterrorism cooperation or operations. This is a victory for both countries, which continue to work together against this and other important terrorist targets."

A senior Obama administration official said the campaign helps both the U.S. and Pakistan.

"We're not blind to Pakistani sensitivities, and the Pakistanis shouldn't ignore major successes that help their security, too, such as the recent demise of Rahman," the official said. "Surely they recognize the benefits of American counterterrorism operations that accrue to Pakistanis."

Rather than focusing largely on the U.S., the official said the Pakistanis should also be "spending a lot of time thinking about how they can tighten the screws on murderers based in their own country."

--Matthew Rosenberg and Tom Wright contributed to this article.

Write to Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com and Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com