Obama confirms drone strikes in Pakistan

US President Barack Obama has confirmed that unmanned drones regularly strike suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Obama called the strikes a "targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists".

The US does not routinely speak publicly about drone operations.

The strikes targeted "al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Obama said.

"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."

Few details are known about the covert US drone operation, which is run by the CIA and targets al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in the mountainous areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

They often cause outrage in Pakistan, where many assert that the strikes cause indiscriminate civilian deaths and injuries.

Anti-American feeling flared in Pakistan in the wake of the US special operations mission that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

The use of unmanned drones, operated remotely from the US, to target militants in Pakistan's tribal areas began under President George W Bush's administration. However, attacks have more than doubled under the Obama administration.

Thousands of people have been killed by the strikes - civilians as well as militants, causing outrage in Pakistan. One of the deadliest attacks was in March 2011 when 40 were killed, many believed to be civilians.

Obama made his comments during an hour-long video "hangout" on Google's social network, Google , which was also streamed live on YouTube.

More than 130,000 questions were submitted before the hangout began, and six people were invited to join the president online for the event. They were able to ask questions and seek follow-up answers from Obama.

The event ended a week of social media engagement in the wake of Obama's State of the Union address on 24 January.