Niger has asked the U.S. to start using armed drones against jihadist groups operating on the Mali border, raising the stakes in a counter-insurgency campaign jolted by a deadly ambush of allied U.S.-Nigerien forces.
On Oct. 4, Islamist militants with sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades killed four U.S. soldiers.
Four of Nigerian partners were also killed in an ambush that exposed the dangers of an expanding U.S. presence in the largely desert nation.
What began as a small U.S. training operation has expanded to an 800-strong force that accompanies the Nigerians on intelligence gathering and other missions.
It includes a 100 million dollars drone base in the central Nigerian city of Agadez which, however, at present only deploys surveillance drones.
“I asked them some weeks ago to arm them (the drones) and use them as needed,”…
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