CIA withdraws top spy from Pakistan after threats

The CIA's top spy in Pakistan, who helps oversee drone strikes against Islamist militants, has been forced to leave the country amid threats to his life, a U.S. intelligence official said Friday.

The official did not provide further details about the abrupt departure of the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief.

But the New York Times reported the spy was pulled out after his name -- which classified as secret -- was revealed in a lawsuit by a Pakistani man, who alleges his son and brother were killed in a drone bombing raid.

"This exceptional officer -- who had already served beyond a regular tour -- is returning to the United States after the decision was made that terrorist threats against him in Pakistan were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The intelligence official indicated the threats would not affect the spy agency's bombing war against al-Qaeda and Taliban figures in northwest Pakistan, which the U.S. government avoids discussing openly.

"The CIA's mission in Pakistan, including the agency's relentless fight against militants, continues unabated," the official said.

The United States has dramatically expanded bombing raids by robotic aircraft since the summer of 2008, with 177 strikes so far this year, double the number of attacks in 2009, according to the independent New America Foundation in Washington.

26 militants killed

The CIA station chief's departure came as a barrage of U.S. missiles killed 26 militants in Pakistan’ lawless tribal district of Khyber, in the second attack reported by local officials in two days as Barack Obama urged Islamabad to do more to root out terror havens.

Twin drone strikes destroyed compounds in Khyber, officials said, the tribal district nearest to the northwestern capital of Peshawar and this week seemingly subject to an expansion of the covert American campaign.

The strikes hit two different villages in Tirah, the same valley where a U.S. drone attack on Thursday killed seven militants in either the first or second such strike in Khyber, local officials said.

They said the first strike Friday destroyed a compound in the Sipah area of Tirah, killing at least five militants. A drone then fired two missiles into another compound in the Malakdin Khel area.

"Five militants were killed in the second strike. All of them were local TTP militants," one security official in Peshawar told AFP, referring to Pakistan's main Taliban faction known as Tehreek-e-Taliban.

Officials warned that the death toll could rise further.

Washington considers Pakistan's lawless tribal belt the global headquarters of al-Qaeda and says eliminating the militant threat is vital to winning the nine-year war against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

The United States does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, but its military and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the aircraft in the region.

The United States has this year doubled drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt with around 100 attacks killing more than 600 people since Jan. 1.

Most of them have been concentrated in North Waziristan, the most notorious Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan, where U.S. officials want the Pakistan military to ultimately launch a ground offensive.

Obama’s Afghan strategy

On Thursday, the U.S. president unveiled a review of his strategy to defeat al-Qaeda and reverse the nine-year Afghan Taliban insurgency, calling on Pakistan to do more to root out terror havens.

Obama said the United States "welcomed" Pakistan's efforts against Islamist extremists, which in particular has seen the army beat back the Taliban from South Waziristan in the tribal belt and Swat, a northwest former tourist spot.

"Nevertheless progress has not come fast enough, so we will continue to insist to Pakistani leaders that terrorist safe havens within their borders must be dealt with," Obama said.

Under blanket security as Pakistan marked the holy day of Ashura, which has been marred in the past by bomb attacks, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived on a three-day visit aimed at finalizing $20 billion' worth of trade deals.

Accompanied by a huge business delegation, Wen is the first Chinese premier in five years to visit the nuclear-armed country.

A mortar attack in Pakistan's northwest town of Hangu killed nine people, including women and children, in what police called a sectarian attack.

Six Shiites and three Sunni Muslims died.

"It was a sectarian attack. A total of four mortars were fired. The death toll is now nine," Gul Jamal, a local police official, told AFP.

Police said at least two children and a woman were among the dead.

The U.S. policy review concluded that Al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan is now weaker than at any stage since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

It eyed a "responsible reduction" of U.S. forces in Afghanistan next July, though a full handover to Afghan security is not envisaged until at least 2014.

We will continue to insist to Pakistani leaders that terrorist safe havens within their borders must be dealt with

U.S. President Barack Obama