USA looking for a North African country to host drones

The United States is holding discussions with countries in North Africa about locating drones at a base there to heighten monitoring of “Daesh” terror group of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Libya, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a senior US administration official.

Such a base near Daesh-ISIS strongholds in Libya would help the United States “fill gaps in our understanding of what’s going on” in that region, the official was quoted as saying.

The newspaper said drone flights would give U.S. military and intelligence agencies real-time information on the terrorist group’s activities in Libya.

Fighters allied with ISIS commanders in Iraq and Syria have been gaining ground in Libya, where two rival governments are battling for control and extremists have taken advantage of the security vacuum.

The Journal, citing senior U.S. officials, said no North African country had yet agreed to offer access to a base.

 It quoted officials as saying any such facility would likely be an existing base under the control of the host country, with the United States receiving permission to place drones there along with a limited number of military personnel.

U.S. allies Egypt and Tunisia share borders with Libya. But the Journal reported administration officials declined to identify countries that could host U.S. drones.

U.S. military officials told the paper that drones launched from the proposed base could also be used in air strikes against Daesh-ISIS targets in Libya and that the base could be a launching point for special operations missions against armed extremists.

In a recent statement to the press however, the Algerian minister in charge of Maghreb, African and Arab League affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, reiterated Algeria’s refusal in principle to see the setting up of a foreign military base in any of the neighboring countries, stressing that the Algerian state is quite able to combat the scourge of terrorism resolutely and in all efficiency without resorting to the establishment of foreign military bases on the national territory.