Tag: drone
Possible Drone Discovered On White House Grounds, Officials Say

Possible Drone Discovered On White House Grounds, Officials Say

By Christi Parsons, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

An electronic device that could be a drone has been recovered on the White House grounds, Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a briefing early Monday in New Delhi, India.

Asked about media reports on the device, Earnest said the device “doesn’t pose any ongoing threat” to the Obama family. The Secret Service is reportedly investigating.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are traveling in India right now. Their daughters, Malia and Sasha, are at home with their grandmother.

The question arose during a lengthy news conference here about diplomatic talks with the Indian government and Obama’s trip later this week to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to pay respects to the family of the late king during their mourning period.

In the middle of the news conference, Earnest said he didn’t know about the reports on the device. After checking his BlackBerry at the end of the news conference, he said a device was recovered on the White House grounds.

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards

Iraq Appeals For U.S. Air Strikes On Advancing Jihadists

Iraq Appeals For U.S. Air Strikes On Advancing Jihadists

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq asked the United States Wednesday to carry out air strikes on Sunni jihadists, who attacked the country’s main oil refinery and seized more territory in the north.

The appeal came as fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were pressing a week-long offensive that has brought them close to the capital, and as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pledging to face down “terrorism.”

“Iraq has officially asked Washington to help under the security agreement (between the two countries), and to conduct air strikes against terrorist groups,” Zebari told reporters in Saudi Arabia.

However, Zebari said “a military approach will not be enough. We acknowledge the need for drastic political solutions.”

The United States spent millions of dollars over several years training and arming a new Iraqi army after disbanding the Sunni-led force created by the late dictator Saddam Hussein.

Washington has already deployed an aircraft carrier to the Gulf and sent marines to bolster security at its embassy in Baghdad, but President Barack Obama has insisted a return to combat in Iraq for U.S. soldiers is not on the cards.

However, Secretary of State John Kerry has said drone strikes could be used.

Maliki vowed on television that “we will face terrorism and bring down the conspiracy,” adding that “we will teach (militants) a lesson and strike them.”

He also said the country’s security forces, which wilted in the face of a major militant offensive that overran all of one province and chunks of three more in a matter of days last week, had suffered a “setback” but had not been defeated.

Maliki security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta later said security forces would retake by Thursday morning full control of Tal Afar, a Shiite town in the north that lies along a strategic corridor to Syria.

That would provide a base from which to launch operations to recapture Mosul.

With regional tensions rising, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic “will do everything” to protect Shiite shrines in Iraqi cities against the militant assault.

And Saudi Arabia warned of the risks of a civil war in Iraq with unpredictable consequences for the region, while the United Arab Emirates recalled its envoy to Baghdad, voicing concern over “exclusionary and sectarian policies.”

The crisis, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, threatens to break the country apart, while the assault on Baiji oil refinery Wednesday further spooked international oil markets.

Brent crude for August delivery added three cents to $113.48 per barrel just after midday in London.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery picked up 34 cents to $106.73 a barrel.

The attack on the refinery complex, in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, was launched before dawn, officials said.

Atta said Iraqi forces managed to kill 40 militants and repel the attack, but that some tanks containing refined products caught fire.

The refinery was shut down and some employees evacuated on Tuesday due to a drop in demand caused by the militant drive.

World oil producers have cautiously watched the unfolding chaos in Iraq, which currently exports around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. They have stressed that the country’s vast crude supplies, mostly in the south, are safe — for now.

The militants’ swift advance has sparked international alarm, with the UN’s envoy to Baghdad warning that the crisis was “life-threatening for Iraq.”

Analysts suggested that the country could unravel, surviving at best as a federal state.

John Drake, an expert on Iraq with British security group AKE, was asked if Iraq could remain united.

“I don’t think it’s impossible, but it is highly unlikely,” was his verdict.

Police and officials reported that militants had moved into the Shiite Turkmen area of Bashir in Kirkuk province and also seized three villages in Salaheddin province Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry announced that 40 Indian construction workers had been abducted in Mosul, the first city to fall in the offensive.

Spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said 46 Indian nurses were also stranded in the militant-held city of Tikrit.

Last week, as the offensive got underway ISIL fighters kidnapped 49 Turks in Mosul, including diplomats and children, after earlier seizing 31 Turkish truck drivers.

In a bid to see off the offensive, Maliki sacked several top security commanders Tuesday evening, then stood alongside several of his main rivals in a rare display of unity among the country’s fractious political leaders.

The dismissals came after soldiers and police fled en masse as insurgents swept into Mosul, a city of two million, on June 10.

Some abandoned their vehicles and uniforms when faced with the insurgents, which are led by ISIL fighters but also include loyalists of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

After taking Mosul, militants captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.

Despite security forces’ initial poor performance, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Iraqi troops, with help from Shiite volunteers, were “stiffening their resistance” around Baghdad.

©afp.com / Sabah Arar

U.S. Drone Strike Reported In Pakistan, Ending Five Month Pause

U.S. Drone Strike Reported In Pakistan, Ending Five Month Pause

By Zulfiqar Ali and Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A U.S. drone aircraft struck suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas Wednesday, breaking a five-month pause in the attacks, Pakistani security officials said.

Officials said the unmanned aircraft fired two missiles, hitting a car and a house in the North Waziristan tribal area Wednesday evening.

It marked the first strike by the CIA-run U.S. drone program in Pakistan since Christmas, according to the independent New America Foundation, which tracks the incidents. The strikes, which peaked at well over 100 in 2010, have dramatically decreased due to Pakistani opposition and tighter Obama administration guidelines on their use.

The strike came less than two weeks after U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban in North Waziristan, was freed in a prisoner exchange. His release has raised the prospect that the U.S. might increase the pace of drone attacks against the Taliban and the Haqqani network, the allied militant group that held Bergdahl.

Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, former commander of U.S. Central Command, said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier this week that U.S. officials used to fear that an operation against the Taliban or Haqqani network could result in Bergdahl’s death.

“We no longer have that concern they have this pawn they can play against us,” Mattis said.

Residents reached by telephone Wednesday night said that drone aircraft continued to hover over North Waziristan throughout the day. The missile strikes were heard some 15 miles away from the blast site in the village of Tabbi, said Muhammad Khalil, a resident of the town of Miramshah.

Four Uzbek nationals were reported killed, but that could not be independently verified.

Also Wednesday, an Uzbek militant group based in Pakistan’s tribal areas said it participated in a deadly raid on the airport in the Pakistani city of Karachi that left 36 people dead, including 10 assailants. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity, said the claim was published on the website of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, one of many Islamist organizations operating in lawless northeast Pakistan, The Associated Press reported.

Pakistani officials had earlier said that some of the militants who participated in the Sunday night attack, which shocked the country and forced the closure of its largest air hub, were of Uzbek and Chechen origin.

AFP Photo/Asif Hassan

FAA For The First Time OKs Commercial Drone Flights Over Land

FAA For The First Time OKs Commercial Drone Flights Over Land

By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Marking a milestone for the industry, Monrovia, California, drone maker AeroVironment Inc. has announced a contract to use an unmanned aircraft to perform routine commercial services over land in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

The company’s small drone, called Puma AE, is now scouring BP Exploration Inc.’s Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, a first under FAA authorization.

As the U.S. Navy moves toward developing its first fleet of aircraft carrier-based combat drones, a dogfight has broken out in Washington over the direction of the program.

“These surveys on Alaska’s North Slope are another important step toward broader commercial use of unmanned aircraft,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “The technology is quickly changing, and the opportunities are growing.”

Since Sunday, the drone has been flying above the largest oil field in North America using high-tech sensors to create 3-D computerized models of roads, pads and pipelines for industrial applications.

The five-year contract could be a sign of things to come as drone technology becomes more advanced and demand increases from police agencies and others for using drones in the commercial world.

Melanie Hinton, spokeswoman for Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the nation’s largest drone trade group, said the milestone is “an exciting moment in the integration process.”

Drones “have proven adept at safely and effectively performing aerial surveys, and can be an effective tool for the oil and gas industry,” she said. Hinton said her group believes that more needs to be done to allow for such operations, with limits.

The Puma, which takes off after being thrown into the air, was originally designed to give troops on the ground a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening over a ridge or around a bend.

In one mission for BP, the AeroVironment drone assisted drivers moving 3.5-million-pound drill rigs on tight roadways in low-visibility conditions by giving them high-resolution 3-D models of the road ahead.

“This is an important achievement for our joint team and for the industry in demonstrating the safe and effective use of our proven UAS technology for commercial applications,” AeroVironment Chief Executive Timothy E. Conver said in a statement.

AeroVironment is the Pentagon’s top supplier of small drones — including the Raven, Wasp and Puma models. But the company, which makes drones in its Simi Valley facilities, has seen sales decline as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan come to a close.

Hoping for new revenue streams, AeroVironment has been waiting for the FAA to allow drones to fly for commercial purposes here at home.

Currently, drones are not allowed to fly in the U.S. except with special permission from the FAA. As demand increases from commercial industries, though, the agency has moved to ease restrictions.

Oil and gas companies such as BP want to utilize them to keep an eye on their pipelines. Moviemakers want to use drones to film action scenes. The idea of using robotic aircraft as transport vehicles has been discussed as a way to deliver books for Amazon.com and pizza for Domino’s.

The FAA is working to meet a congressional mandate to integrate U.S. airspace with robotic aircraft by September 2015.

However, the prospect of thousands of unmanned aircraft flying around U.S. airspace in populated areas beginning at that time appears unlikely. The FAA has said that remotely piloted aircraft aren’t allowed in national airspace on a wide scale because they don’t have an adequate “detect, sense and avoid” technology to prevent midair collisions.

Last summer, the FAA gave away two first-of-their-kind certificates that permitted operators to fly drones for commercial purposes. However, they were in remote areas over water.

The oil field at Prudhoe Bay is in the northernmost part of Alaska, near the Beaufort Sea. There, AeroVironment’s Puma, which has a wingspan of about 9 feet, flies at 200 to 400 feet above ground level for up to 3.5 hours at a time.

“This technology will help BP optimize the planning and implementation of maintenance programs for the North Slope infrastructure throughout Prudhoe Bay,” said Dawn Patience, a BP spokeswoman. “Targeting maintenance activities on specific road areas will save time, and address safety and reliability.”

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb