U.S. Has Secret Ethiopian Drone Base

Why mess with something that seems to be working? The U.S. Air Force has been flying armed Reaper drones from Arba Minch, a civilian airport in southern Ethiopia. The Air Force has been using the drones to target al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia. The Obama administration has been building many secret drone bases in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, but the location of the Ethiopian base and the fact that it was operational had not previously been confirmed. A spokesman for the 17th Air Force said that the flights “will continue as long as the government of Ethiopia welcomes our cooperation on these varied security programs.”