Washington Post
*U.S. drone base in Ethiopia is operational* *Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, USA, 27 October 2011*The Air Force has been secretly flying Reaper drones on counterterrorism missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethi觔計ia as part of a rapidly expanding U.S.-led proxy war against an al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa, U.S. military officials said.
The Air Force has invested millions of dollars to upgrade an airfield in Arba Minch, Ethi觔計ia, where it has built a small annex to house a fleet of drones that can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs. The Reapers began flying missions earlier this year over neighboring Somalia, where the United States and its allies in the region have been targeting al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group connected to al-Qaeda.
On Friday, the Pentagon said the drones are unarmed and have been used only for surveillance and collecting intelligence, though it would not rule out the possibility that they would be used to launch lethal strikes in the future.
Mindful of the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" debacle in which two U.S. military helicopters were shot down in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and 18 Americans killed, the Obama administration has sought to avoid deploying troops to the country.
As a result, the United States has relied on lethal drone attacks, a burgeoning CIA presence in Mogadishu and small-scale missions carried out by U.S. Special Forces. In addition, the United States has increased its funding for and training of African peacekeeping forces in Somalia that fight al-Shabab.
The Washington Post reported last month that the Obama administration is building a constellation of secret drone bases in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, including one site in Ethi觔計ia. The location of the Ethio計ian base and the fact that it became operational this year, however, have not been previously disclosed. Some bases in the region also have been used to carry out operations against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
The Air Force confirmed Thursday that drone operations are underway at the Arba Minch airport. Master Sgt. James Fisher, a spokesman for the 17th Air Force, which oversees operations in Africa, said that an unspecified number of Air Force personnel 苔re working at the Ethio計ian airfield "to provide operation and technical support for our security assistance programs."
The Arba Minch airport expansion is still in progress but the Air Force deployed the Reapers there earlier this year, Fisher said. He said the drone flights "will continue as long as the government of Ethi觔計ia welcomes our cooperation on these varied security programs."
Last month, the Ethio計ian Foreign Ministry denied the presence of U.S. drones in the country. On Thursday, a spokesman for the Ethio計ian embassy in Washington repeated that assertion.
"That's the government's position," said Tesfaye Yilma, the head of public diplomacy for the embassy. "We don't entertain foreign military bases in Ethi觔計ia."
But U.S. military personnel and contractors have become increasingly visible in recent months in Arba Minch, a city of about 70,000 people in southern Ethi觔計ia. Arba Minch means "40 springs" in Amharic, the national language.
*From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-drone-base-in-ethiopia-is-operational/2011/10/27/gIQAznKwMM_story.html*
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