JAKARTA - President Joe Biden's decision to allow his military to carry out airstrikes on bases of Iran-backed militia groups last Sunday night was said to have targeted weapons storage facilities, including the latest Iranian drones.
US airstrikes late Sunday night hit operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. The targets selected were facilities used by Iran-backed militias when carrying out unmanned vehicle (UAV) attacks against US personnel and facilities in Iraq.
Previously, several drones strikes targeted the US and international troops and personnel in Iraq. Earlier this month, an armed drone was detonated near the main entrance to Baghdad airport used by US troops and diplomats.
Last April, the CIA's drone facility in Erbil was also attacked by drones. Launching CNN, Tuesday, June 29, a source said this attack was originally carried out after the attacks last April. But it was delayed until four drones hit the northern Iraqi city and the US retaliated last weekend.
For months, US intelligence and military personnel in Iraq have been raising warnings about the risks to US forces from these newer and more sophisticated Iranian-made drones.
Instead of being guided by pilots from remote locations, some of these small fixed-wing drones use GPS navigation, making them much less visible to US surveillance systems and impervious to interference.
"Suffice it to say that (the CIA) is now paying a lot of attention to these issues because those things tend to wake you up a bit", said a former Israeli official with experience in the region.
While rocket attacks on US personnel in Iraq have become almost routine, these new Iranian-made drones, dubbed 'Suicide' drones, are seen by US intelligence and military personnel as a clear escalation by Iran. A worrying signal to intelligence officials, the US no longer enjoys autonomy in the skies over Iraq.
Packed with explosives, these new drones come in a variety of sizes. It ranges from a wingspan of five feet to 12 to 15 feet, according to a US military official, with larger iterations carrying up to 30 kilograms of explosives. However, it is much smaller and less lethal than the US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Officials and experts call the new Iranian-made drone a unique threat. Only Iran has this drone technology, so the attacks carried out by the militias with drones are undoubted, provided by Iran.
"They are also much more dangerous. Someone can be killed and more than ever because everything is accurate", said a US military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We think they're really aiming for it and the warheads on these things are pretty big", the source continued, describing the capabilities of the 'Suicide' drone.
Officials say the use of GPS on drones to locate targets makes it difficult to evade attacks in defense.
"What we used to do in the past was try to trap the link between the person flying it and the plane or taking it over", the former intelligence official said.
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"That's still what we're trying to do, but now they just send it to GPS. No links, nothing crashes, nothing gets taken over. They're so 'less visible,'", the source said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the US mission in Iraq added, smaller drones are also used to gather intelligence on the US and allied bases.
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