What actions count towards pointstreaks?

What counts towards setting your personal killstreak?

Basically, my killstreak is set at 20 and I'm curious whether or not those 20 kills in a row came just from my gun, frag, launcher, etc. or do killstreak kills (choppers, AC-130, predator missle, etc.) also count.

The answer to this is dependent on which package your class has.

Earning points:

• Kills with weapons (primary, secondary, and attachments)
• Kills with lethal equipment (ie, grenades, C4, mines)
• Destroying enemy equipment (ie, shooting down a UAV or helicopter)
• Completing objectives (ie, capturing the flag)

This is different from previous Call of Duty games, and they call them "pointstreaks" instead of "killstreaks" for this reason. You earn credit for far more objectives in this game than you used to.

Strike packages:

• Support - You do not gain points towards your pointstreak for players killed from previous pointstreak rewards. However, the pointstreak does not reset when you die.
• Assault - You do gain points towards your pointstreak for players killed from previous pointstreak rewards, as long as you use them in the same life in which you get them. (Care package rewards are the exception to this) However, your pointstreak resets on death, and pointstreak rewards from previous lives do not give points towards a new pointstreak chain.
• Specialist - Instead of pointstreak rewards, you gain new perks when you make kills. Getting past the top of this chain will give you every perk, but the perks reset to the default for your class when you die.

Other modifiers:

• Hardline reduces your requirements for each pointstreak by 1. If you'd normally unlock a pointstreak at 4 kills, you'd unlock it at 3. This is most beneficial for lower-tier pointstreak rewards.
• Hardline Pro makes it so that 2 assists count as one "kill" for the purposes of a pointstreak. You can get assists for flashing, stunning, or wounding enemies that die shortly afterwards. This can be extraordinarily powerful if you're smart with your tactical grenades. The assists from the Recon Drone tags don't count for this, however.

Anything except air drop crates (care package), pave low and sentry guns. The sentry guns only count if you actually get it.