US fires first drone missile at Gaddaf i

Published on Saturday 23 April 2011 15:32

THE United States launched its first Predator drone strike on Libya yesterday.

The US defence department was cagey about the strike, saying only that it occurred in the early afternoon local time in Libya, but declined to give more details.

US defence secretary Robert Gates announced last Thursday that the unmanned aircraft would be used in Libya for Hellfire missile attacks on the forces of leader Muammar Gaddafi.

President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed Predator drones to improve the precision of strikes on Libyan government forces. Predators had previously been used in Libya only for surveillance.

However, the low-flying Predator drones - all of which are unmanned - have been used in Afghanistan for a number of years to kill militants on the ground, and they are suited for urban combat.

General James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US plan called for keeping two patrols of armed Predators above Libya at any given time, permitting better surveillance - and targeting - of Gaddafi's forces. The drones are based in the region but typically flown by remote control by pilots based in the United States.

The US military has been using other drones to target militants along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The Libya drones were not taken from Afghanistan.

In the capital of Tripoli, two missiles apparently fired by Nato warplanes struck near Gaddafi's sprawling compound in the early hours of yesterday morning, causing no injuries.

Foreign reporters were taken by Libyan officials to an unpaved plot next to the Bab Aziziyeh compound and shown two craters, apparently from the missiles that had pierced through thick layers of reinforced concrete, laying bare what looked like an intricate bunker system underground.

Libyan officials said the space was a parking lot but a series of olive-coloured metal boxes near the crater suggested it was being used for military activities.

It was not clear if the site was hit by missiles from a US Predator drone, although there has been speculation that this may have been the case.