https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...rica-gqfhshv97
Armed US drones sent in to hunt jihadists in Africa
The US military has begun operating armed Reaper drones from a base in Niger, west Africa, targeting terrorist groups that have brought violence and instability to the region.
Top of the target list will be the leaders of a group linked to Isis that attacked a patrol of US special forces Green Beret soldiers and local troops in Niger last October. Four Americans and five Nigerien soldiers were killed.Fifty heavily armed jihadist fighters from Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) ambushed the patrol near the village of Tongo Tongo in Niger, close to the border with Mali. The jihadists fled across the border after an extensive skirmish. More than 20 of them were killed.
With Mali involved in a presidential election marred by intimidation from different extremist groups, including the ISGS, the American drones now fitted with a range of weapons, including precision-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles, have been engaged in day and night missions. Although the US has operated drones from Niger for some years, their role was strictly for surveillance and reconnaissance.
A Reaper drone was flying over the area during the attack on the Americans and the Nigerien troops whom they were training. The Reaper was unarmed and unable to intervene. It was as a result of this ambush and the lack of immediate back-up firepower that the Nigerien government approved the deployment of armed Reapers to the base in Niamey, the capital.
US Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, confirmed that armed drones were now operating from Niger, although officials would not say whether there had been any strike missions. The addition of weapons to the Reapers, which have a combat range of 1,150 miles, gives the US military the ability to strike terrorist targets in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
The US military is due soon to move its fleet of armed Reapers from Niamey to a new $110 million base at Agadez, on the edge of the Sahara.......