US drones loomed large in the skies over North Waziristan today, flying over villages and sewing panic in a region which has seen scores of residents killed in attacks by those drones over the past few months. On Friday similar drones killed 22 people, including several children.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the Senate today that it is the Obama Administration’s intention to continue the attacks, in spite of the repeatedly objection of the Pakistani government. When asked, Gates also confirmed that the Pakistani government had been informed of the plan to continue the attacks.

The government has refused to comment directly on its individual attacks, but officials seem almost universal in their agreement that the Bush era practice of unilateral strikes on the territory of an ally should continue, no matter how much relations with that ally are harmed by them.