After vowing transparency, Washington silent on drone strike A week after President Barack Obama cracked the lid of secrecy on his drone war, the United States refused Wednesday to confirm it had killed a top Pakistani Taliban leader in an airborne attack. Pakistani security and intelligence sources said that Waliur Rehman, deputy leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had died in a U.S. drone strike, along with at least five other people, in North Waziristan. But senior officials in Washington stuck to their normal practice of declining to provide details of U.S. operations. They only hinted that Mr. Rehman, wanted for attacks on Americans and Pakistanis, had been killed. The attack appeared to be the first known U.S. drone strike since Mr. Obama's speech last week laying out new criteria for the covert use of unmanned aerial vehicles in strikes against terror suspects and militants. "We are not in a position to confirm the reports of Waliur Rehman's death," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "If those reports were true, or prove to be true, it's worth noting that his demise would deprive the TTP of its second-in-command and chief military strategist," he added. Mr. Rehman is also wanted in connection with attacks on U.S. and NATO personnel across the Afghan border and for involvement in the attack on American citizens in Khost, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, 2009. Mr. Carney would not confirm whether the attack on Mr. Rehman satisfied the new criteria for drone strikes established by Mr. Obama last week during a speech that aimed to recast the country's decade-long battle against terrorism. In the speech, Mr. Obama said lethal force would only be used to "prevent or stop attacks against U.S. persons," when capture is not feasible and if a target poses a "continuing, imminent threat" to Americans.