Nominated spy chief John Brennan reported to have agreed exemption over extra-judicial assassinations

By Ed Pilkington in New York, guardian.co.uk, 20 Jan. 2013

John Brennan, the counter-terrorism adviser nominated by President Obama to be the next head of the CIA, has reportedly agreed to exempt agency strikes in Pakistan from a new set of rules that attempts to justify and codify the use of drones to assassinate leaders of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups around the world, including US citizens.

The dispensation to allow so-called targeted killing to continue without restrictions in Pakistan removes from the new set of guidelines the most important and controversial target of drone strikes. In the past few weeks the frequency of US strikes in the tribal areas of northern Pakistan, where many al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are hiding out, has been stepped up.

The Washington Post reports that the CIA is close to finalizing the new guidelines on drone strikes, known as the "playbook". But a multi-agency committee of national security officials led by Brennan agreed to remove Pakistan from its terms [....]

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US drone strike kills 2 Saudi AQAP fighters in central Yemen
By Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal, Jan. 20, 2013

The US killed eight people, including two Saudi al Qaeda fighters, in a drone strike yesterday in Marib province in central Yemen. The strike is the first recorded in Yemen in 16 days. [....] Two of those killed "were known al Qaeda militants of Saudi nationality," AP reported. One of the Saudis is thought to be Ismail bin Jamil. Tribesmen blocked the road from Marib to the capital of Sana'a to protest the strikes, according to Reuters.

Today's strike is the second this year [....]

[For more information on the US airstrikes in Yemen, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US air strikes in Yemen, 2002 - 2013.]