Despite the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to check terrorism and piracy, emanating from Somalia and Yemen, terror activities go on unabatedly. Concerned with this growing threat, the US has said it would expand the ring of bases for armed drones around the Indian Ocean, east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

According to a report in the Washington Post, new facilities for the MQ-9 Reaper UAVs are planned for Ethiopia and expanded bases in Seychelles and Djibouti. The report said that these drones, which have a maximum range of over 5,760 km, can be deployed in these two countries from Seychelles. They are the same drones which are used by the Royal Air Force in Afghanistan.

The US military has said that its drones already stationed in the Seychelles were there purely to run airborne reconnaissance missions to assist the international effort to beat Somali pirates. The Seychelles Government said it was fully supportive of the US expansion, despite fears it would make the island archipelago an increased target for Islamist radicals.

Meanwhile, Sunatimes from Mogadishu reported that Al-Shabaab militia in the Port city of Kismayo was displaying at Freedom Park a US spy drone that crashed in the city after it was allegedly hit by the militia.

The militia who made the announcement using loudspeakers mounted on a militia car ordered the locals to avail themselves at the park to witness the drone they claimed they shot down.

Abdirahman Sheikh Mudey, one of the Al-Shabaab leaders in the city claimed they shot down the drone while itf was taking photographs of parts of the city.