BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The U.S. military commander in the Middle East has openly expressed worries over armed drones launched by popular mobilization forces in Iraq.
Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie said the drones were difficult to detect and destroy, and he admitted the U.S. was struggling to deal with them. Finding better ways to counter such attacks was a top priority, he said.
“We’re working very hard to find technical fixes that would allow us to be more effective against drones,” McKenzie said. Efforts were underway to look for ways to cut command and control links between a drone and its operator, improve radar sensors to quickly identify the threat as it approached, and find effective ways to bring them down.
“We’re open to all kinds of things,” he said. “The army is working it very hard. Still, I don’t think we’re where we want to be.”
An armed drone targeted U.S.-led coalition forces near a northern Iraq airport in April, causing a large fire and damage to a building.
McKenzie visited Iraq and Syria on Thursday and Friday last week. For security reasons, there was a news blackout on his visit until Saturday.
He also noted that “fencing and high netting” can also be used as protective measures, further expressing fear that the use of small drones by Iraqi mobilization forces –resisting continued U.S. military presence in the country despite a parliamentary call last year for their ouster – “is only going to grow in the next few years,” according to the report.
Overall attacks against American troops across Iraq have surged. Earlier this month, the Ain al-Asad air base housing U.S. troops in Iraq’s western province of Anbar also came under a drone attack, damaging a hangar for military aircraft.
The explosives-laden drone reportedly crashed inside the air base, located about 160 kilometers west of the capital Baghdad, without causing any damage, according to U.S. and official Iraqi media sources. The attack came amid numerous rocket attacks against other American military facilities across the country.
The new U.S. administration of Joe Biden, however, has resumed strategic talks with Baghdad, initiated under his former Republican rival and predecessor Donald Trump, in which the future of American troop presence in Iraq remains a top agenda with the CENTCOM commander hoping for continued U.S. military engagement in the country.
Nearly two weeks ago, giant U.S. weapons and aerospace firm Lockheed Martin withdrew its staff from a military base in Iraq where it had been maintaining the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets, citing security concerns.
Quoting anonymous military sources, media outlets reported on May 10 that the American military contractor had decided to pull out its maintenance teams for Iraq army’s F-16 fighter jets for security reasons, after a spate of rocket attacks targeting U.S. troops and contractors in the country.