U.S. increasing drone attacks to hunt down terrorists

Aya Ezz

The U.S. has used drones in attacking terrorists in volatile areas in a number of Arab states, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan.

This is America’s new way of fighting terrorism, without incurring any casualties among its troops.

The latest of such attacks took place on October 16 in Reef Idlib, northern Syria, when an American drone targeted two commanders of the Guardians of Religion Organization.

The attack brings the drone attacks staged by the United States in Syria since the beginning of September this year up to 12, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

U.S. drones

According to a report by the BBC, the most outstanding drone attacks happened in January 2015, when the U.S. killed five terrorists in tribal areas in Pakistan.

It said the U.S. carried a series of successful drone attacks in that year and managed to kill over 50 terrorists in these attacks.

On March 18, 2016, U.S. drones killed six other terrorists in Pakistan. On October 15, 2017, U.S. drones targeted 40 leaders of al-Qaeda in Yemen. On November 12, 2018, the U.S. revealed that it had killed 15 terrorists in Nigeria during the two previous months.

Since 2019, the U.S. killed 150 terrorists in Syria and Iraq in drone attacks, the BBC said.

Investing success

International relations professor at Cairo University Mohamed Hussein expected the U.S. to invest the success of its drone attacks in launching yet more attacks in the coming period.

These attacks, he said, help the U.S. avoid losses among its troops and fighter jets.

“The drone attacks will be the golden tool of the U.S. to get rid of terrorists anywhere in the world,” Hussein told The Reference.

He said this is especially true with American plans to target Iranian figures in Syria and Iraq.