Niger asks US to deploy armed drones against militants on Mali border
Niamey — Niger has asked the US to start using armed drones against jihadist groups operating on the Mali border, raising the stakes in a counter-insurgency campaign jolted by a deadly ambush of allied US-Nigerien forces. On October. 4, Islamist militants with sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades killed four US soldiers and at least four of their Nigerien partners, in an ambush that exposed the dangers of an expanding US presence in the largely desert nation. What began as a small US training operation has expanded to an 800-strong force that accompanies the Nigeriens on intelligence gathering and other missions. It includes a $100m drone base in the central Nigerien city of Agadez which, however, currently deploys only surveillance drones. "I asked them some weeks ago to arm them [the drones] and use them as needed," Defence Minister Kalla Mountari said in an interview in his office. Asked if Washington had accepted the request, he said: "Our enemies will find out." The deat...
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