Remote US Base at Heart of Drone Wars Revealed in New Report

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/26-8


"This Predator MQ-1B crashed while trying to return to Camp Lemonnier, the U.S. military base in Djibouti, on May 17, 2011. It landed in a vacant lot near a residential area of Djibouti city, about 2.7 miles short of the runway." (Photo: Washington Post/U.S. Air Force)

Deadly US drone attacks in the Middle East and Northern Africa have greatly escalated in the past few years, thanks largely in part to a quickly expanding, yet remote, US base in the Horn of Africa, according to military documents obtained by the Washington Post

Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti has operated as a central command for US attacks in the region for ten years, but in the past two years it has become the pinnacle centerpiece of drone operations in the region, "the busiest Predator drone base outside the Afghan war zone," and a vehicle for the US's expanding war in the region.

A new Washington Post exposé on the base paints a telling picture of the increasingly deadly scenario.

"Taken together, the previously undisclosed documents show how the Djibouti-based drone wars sharply escalated early last year after eight Predators arrived at Lemonnier. The records also chronicle the Pentagon’s ambitious plan to further intensify drone operations here in the coming months," the Post reports.