WASHINGTON: President Biden’s administration has tightened the policypertaining to counterterrorism drone strikes, US media reports said.
The policy requires President’s approval before a suspected terrorist isadded to a list of those who can be targeted in a return to a morecentralized control of decisions about targeted killing operations. Trumphad given commanders in the field greater authority to decide whom totarget.
Biden has signed a classified policy limiting drone strikes outsideconventional war zones, tightening rules that former President Donald Trumphad loosened, according to officials.
The policy, which the White House sent to the Pentagon and the CIA,institutionalizes a version of temporary limits that Biden’s team put inplace as a stopgap for reducing risks to civilians while the administrationreviewed the counterterrorism policies it had got from Trump.
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A description of the policy, along with a classified new counterterrorismstrategy memo President Biden has signed, suggests that the United Statesintends to launch fewer drone strikes and commando raids away fromrecognized war zones than it has in the recent past.
