TALIBAN leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur of North Waziristan has scrapped the peace deal he had signed with the government in February last year "as a protest over US drone attacks", presenting the armed forces with yet another challenge. The first salvo came when an Army convoy was ambushed on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of 30 soldiers. With conflicting signals coming from different sources, one cannot conclude with certainty that the American planes strike against targets in Pakistan without official blessings, though every attack is followed by condemnation by the top political and government leadership. The administration circles remain silent on the issue but the US media and thinktanks openly allege that the Predator attacks have Pakistan government's express consent. Not only that. They maintain that the planes fly from an airstrip located on its territory. Somehow, the US strategists do not take into account their counterproductive effect: the anger that follows the deaths of innocent civilians and the recruits that the militant groups get, making their elimination harder. And now we have a peace deal scrapped