US missile strikes confirm Obama’s tough line

Two missile attacks from remote-controlled US aircraft that killed at least 20 people in suspected terrorist hideouts in northwestern Pakistan suggested president Obama’s commitment to sustained military pressure despite Pakistan’s opposition to unilateral US actions.

American officials in Washington said the attacks had dispelled any notion that Obama would rein in the Predator attacks. Obama and his security aides are also expected to review all counter-terrorism measures put in place by the Bush administration, the officials said.

Members of Obama’s security team have already telegraphed their intention to make firmer demands of Islamabad than the Bush administration, and to back up those demands with a threatened curtailment of the plentiful military aid that has been at the heart of US-Pakistani ties for the past three decades.

The separate missile strikes on two compounds were the first high-profile hostile military actions taken under Obama’s four-day-old presidency. A Pakistani security official said in Islamabad that the strikes appeared to have killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly even “a high-value target” such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official.

It remained unclear whether Obama personally authorised the strike, but military officials have previously said the White House is routinely briefed about such attacks in advance. At his daily White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the strikes.