US President has confirmed for the first time that US drones have targeted Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil

US President Barack Obama has confirmed for the first time that US drones have targeted Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil, a program that has escalated under his administration.
  
The government in Islamabad, whose relations with Washington sank to an all-time low last year, appeared to shrug off the confirmation but made a rare public acknowledgement that the program had "tactical advantages".
  
Asked about drones in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, Obama said "a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA" -- Pakistan's semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the Afghan border.
  
"For the most part, they've been very precise precision strikes against Al-Qaeda and their affiliates, and we're very careful in terms of how it's been applied," Obama said on Monday. "This is a targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases, and so on."
  
He said that many strikes were carried out "on Al-Qaeda operatives in places where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to get them", such as Pakistan's lawless tribal zone. "For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we're already engaging in."