ID :
197634
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 14:46
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/197634
The shortlink copeid
CIA Building Secrete Drone Bases in Middle-East
TEHRAN (FNA)- Media reports unveiled that the CIA has set up a network of secrete drone bases in the Middle-East Arab states under the guise of intensifying attacks on the al-Qaeda terrorist group.
The Times of London quoted a Persian Gulf defense source as claiming that the US is using the drone bases to intensify attacks on the al-Qaeda elements in Yemen.
The report added that the CIA is using bases in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman to seemingly wage attacks on the al-Qaeda in Somalia and Yemen.
Also a report by the AP said that preparing for a worst-case scenario in Yemen, the United States is building a secret CIA air base in the Persian Gulf to have some footstep in there, in case anti-American factions win the current power struggle and shut US forces out.
The White House has already increased the numbers of CIA officers in Yemen, in anticipation of that possibility. And it has stepped up the schedule to construct the base, from a two-year timetable to a rushed eight months.
The Associated Press has withheld the exact location of the base at the request of the US officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because portions of the military and CIA missions in Yemen are classified.
The current campaign is run by a military counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command, with the CIA providing intelligence support. JSOC forces have been allowed by the Yemeni government of Ali Abdullah Saleh to conduct limited strikes there since 2009.
Saleh loyalists have recently allowed expanded strikes by the US armed drones and even warplanes in Yemen.
Earlier, CIA Director Leon Panetta had said that agency officers were working in Yemen together with JSOC, as well as other areas where Al-Qaeda is active. But the CIA would not confirm the White House decision to build the CIA base or expand the agency's operations in Yemen.
Meantime, recent reports on the growing number of the US drones shot down in Iran and some other regional countries, indicated that the US has actually intensified intelligence operations in the regional countries, including Iran, through drone flights.
A large body of reports and witness accounts revealed in the last two years that US drones have been growingly spying around Iranian borders in recent years.
In a recent case, three US spy drones were seen flying near Iran's Western borders in May.
Witness accounts said the US spy drones patrolled the area over the border city of Halabja, a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq 3km from Iran's Western borders, round the clock.
No security official of Halabja city was ready to comment on the development.
When these spying activities grew much, Iran's air defense units shot down a growing number of US drones.
Earlier this year, a senior Iranian military official had confirmed reports on the shooting down of several enemy drones over the Persian Gulf, and said Iran has targeted a large number of these pilotless planes during the last 7 years.
"We have experienced such incidents many times in the past and there have even been drones belonging to the occupying Zionist regime (Israel), the United States and Britain which have been shot down in the Persian Gulf during the past 7 years," the senior military official told FNA in January.
In the first ever such case, Iran announced in January 2007 that its military troops had shot down a spy plane of the US army when trying to cross Iran-Iraq borders in the Southwestern city of Dasht-e-Azadegan, Khuzestan province.
The Times of London quoted a Persian Gulf defense source as claiming that the US is using the drone bases to intensify attacks on the al-Qaeda elements in Yemen.
The report added that the CIA is using bases in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman to seemingly wage attacks on the al-Qaeda in Somalia and Yemen.
Also a report by the AP said that preparing for a worst-case scenario in Yemen, the United States is building a secret CIA air base in the Persian Gulf to have some footstep in there, in case anti-American factions win the current power struggle and shut US forces out.
The White House has already increased the numbers of CIA officers in Yemen, in anticipation of that possibility. And it has stepped up the schedule to construct the base, from a two-year timetable to a rushed eight months.
The Associated Press has withheld the exact location of the base at the request of the US officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because portions of the military and CIA missions in Yemen are classified.
The current campaign is run by a military counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command, with the CIA providing intelligence support. JSOC forces have been allowed by the Yemeni government of Ali Abdullah Saleh to conduct limited strikes there since 2009.
Saleh loyalists have recently allowed expanded strikes by the US armed drones and even warplanes in Yemen.
Earlier, CIA Director Leon Panetta had said that agency officers were working in Yemen together with JSOC, as well as other areas where Al-Qaeda is active. But the CIA would not confirm the White House decision to build the CIA base or expand the agency's operations in Yemen.
Meantime, recent reports on the growing number of the US drones shot down in Iran and some other regional countries, indicated that the US has actually intensified intelligence operations in the regional countries, including Iran, through drone flights.
A large body of reports and witness accounts revealed in the last two years that US drones have been growingly spying around Iranian borders in recent years.
In a recent case, three US spy drones were seen flying near Iran's Western borders in May.
Witness accounts said the US spy drones patrolled the area over the border city of Halabja, a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq 3km from Iran's Western borders, round the clock.
No security official of Halabja city was ready to comment on the development.
When these spying activities grew much, Iran's air defense units shot down a growing number of US drones.
Earlier this year, a senior Iranian military official had confirmed reports on the shooting down of several enemy drones over the Persian Gulf, and said Iran has targeted a large number of these pilotless planes during the last 7 years.
"We have experienced such incidents many times in the past and there have even been drones belonging to the occupying Zionist regime (Israel), the United States and Britain which have been shot down in the Persian Gulf during the past 7 years," the senior military official told FNA in January.
In the first ever such case, Iran announced in January 2007 that its military troops had shot down a spy plane of the US army when trying to cross Iran-Iraq borders in the Southwestern city of Dasht-e-Azadegan, Khuzestan province.
