Obama shifts policy on global war on terror

President Barack Obama yesterday shifted the United States away from a “boundless global war on terror”, restricting deadly US drone strikes abroad and taking steps toward closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison.

In a major policy speech, Obama defended his administration’s drone war against al Qaeda and its allies but made clear he was narrowing the scope of targeted killings, a campaign that has faced growing condemnation at home and abroad.

“Our nation is still threatened by terrorists,” Obama said at Washington’s National Defence University. “We must recognise, however, that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11.”