(21 Sep 2011, The telegraph)--The US is setting up a ring of bases for armed drones around the Indian Ocean, east Africa and the Arabian peninsular to hunt al Qaeda and spy on pirates.
New facilities for the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft are planned for Ethiopia, and bases will be expanded in the Seychelles and Djibouti, a tiny country on the Red Sea.
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Photo: GETTY IMAGES |
The drones have a maximum range of more than 3,600 miles, meaning that they can easily be launched deep over Somalia or Yemen, carry out missions and return to base.
They are the same aircraft used by the Royal Air Force in attacks against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Washington's decision to increase its use of the unmanned "hunter-killer" drones illustrates its concern that anti-Western terror organisations could spread in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsular.
"It's a conscious recognition that those are the hot spots developing right now," a former senior US military official told The Washington Post. FULL ARTICLE AT The telegraph »
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