Somalia: U.S. surveillance drone crashes in refugee camp

Eye witnesses in Badbado camp in Mogadishu report that a drone crashed into a hut located in the camp. African Union troops removed the wreckage. Apparently no one was hurt by the crash.

The U.S. has been using drones both for surveillance of militants and also for attacks on suspected militants in Somalia for some time. Last year a similar plane crashed into a house in Mogadishu.

Obama has been escalating the use of drones in Somalia, Yemen, and in the Pakistani tribal areas as part of operations against militants. The U.S. plans to build more bases for the drones in Africa and elsewhere.

Although some analysts claim their use may be against international law the administration claims that attack drones kill many militant leaders. Critics point out that they often kill civilians as collateral damage.

The Pentagon admits that the special unmanned spy plane the RQ 170 Sentinel went missing while on a joint mission of the military together with the CIA. The Pentagon says it is lost in Iran somewhere although they question the Iranian claim that they shot it down.

Dennis Kucinich a US. congressman says that he is worried by the fact the CIA is involved in the operation. "We have to be very careful that we don't stumble into a wider war here. If we are in Iran's airspace with anything that belongs to the US, that's a provocation,"

There is evidence that a covert war against Iran has been going on for some time. Software that runs centrifuges that are part of Iran's nuclear program were infected with a damaging virus. An Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated . In another case a mysterious explosion at a secret base killed another important scientist. The latter was possibly an accident however.

As of this posting Iran has not released any photos of the drone which they say was not damaged that much. The drone has a great deal of surveillance electronics equipment that is secret. If the Iranians really have it then it could provide them with a great deal of useful information. For more see this article.