Category Archives: Drones (military)

RAF airstrikes killed 29 civilians in Iraq and Syria in two years, analysis suggests

Posted on by

Report says UK armed service has ‘major questions to answer’ about conduct in war against Islamic State

Twenty-nine civilians are feared to have been killed in nine RAF airstrikes in Iraq and Syria between 2016 and 2018, 10 more than previous estimates, and far higher than the single non-combatant fatality accepted by the UK, according to analysis.

In the worst incident, 12 civilians were accepted as likely to have been killed in Raqqa, Syria in 2017 by a US strike, while research points to an RAF drone strike killing at least four member of the same family in Abu Kamal, Syria, in 2016, according to on-the-ground reports.

Continue reading...

Multiple civilian deaths linked to 2016-17 British airstrikes against IS in Mosul

Posted on by

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds deaths despite claims British weapons did not harm a single non-combatant

Multiple airstrikes that killed civilians during the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq are probably linked to UK forces, despite longstanding claims British weapons did not harm a single non-combatant there, a Guardian investigation has found.

Britain’s government and military have for years stood by the claim that in terms of protecting ordinary Iraqis, the UK fought a “perfect” war against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq.

Continue reading...

Russia plans to recover wreckage of US drone downed over Black Sea

Posted on by

‘I certainly hope for success,’ says senior Kremlin official of hopes of raising debris from seabed west of Crimea

Moscow has said it intends to recover the wreckage of a US drone brought down on Tuesday following an interception by Russian fighter jets, but the White House said the debris could be in such deep water that recovery is impossible.

“I don’t know if we can recover [it] or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, said on Wednesday. “I certainly hope for success.”

Continue reading...

Russian downing of US drone marks escalation of confrontation near war zone

Posted on by

Russia’s and China’s ‘signalling’ to US aircraft in international airspace is nothing new, but downing a craft is a worrying development

On any given day around Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, Russian and Nato aircraft and naval vessels, manned and unmanned, buzz around in close proximity, a constant recipe for a superpower crisis along the edges of a war.

The stakes are raised by the fact that both sides have thousands of nuclear warheads as a weapon of last resort, and the risks are raised considerably by reckless behaviour.

Continue reading...

UK refuses to say if it investigated reports of Syria drone strike casualties

Posted on by

MoD refuses to say whether it has looked into claims civilians were injured in December strike

Britain’s Ministry of Defence is refusing to say whether it conducted an investigation into reports of civilian casualties after an RAF drone strike conducted against a terrorist target in northern Syria last December.

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, told MPs on Monday that a Reaper drone was used to attack “a leading Daesh [Islamic State] member in al-Bab, northern Syria” on 20 December, the latest strike in controversial policy of attempted targeted killing.

Continue reading...

Iran becoming global drone producer on back of Ukraine war, says US

Posted on by

Officials share declassified intelligence as US seeks wider support for sanctions against Tehran

Iran is emerging as a global leader in the production of cheap and lethal drones, according to US officials, who say Tehran is using the war in Ukraine as a shop window for its technologies.

Analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency outlined how Iran had turned from being a regional drone player in the Middle East to becoming Moscow’s most significant military backer in the war.

Continue reading...

Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones

Posted on by

SpaceX says satellite communications service ‘never, never meant to be weaponised’

A senior Ukrainian presidential aide has reacted with anger after Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it had taken steps to prevent its Starlink satellite communications service from controlling drones, which are critical to Kyiv’s forces in fighting off the Russian invasion.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s chief operating officer, said at a conference in the US that the surprise decision had been taken because it had never been the company’s intention to allow Starlink to be used “for offensive purposes”.

Continue reading...

Defensive missile systems erected on Moscow rooftops

Posted on by

Kremlin appears to prepare for strikes on Russian capital by installing interception systems

Missile systems designed to intercept aircraft and incoming missiles appear to have been deployed on top of several defence and administrative buildings in downtown Moscow, signalling that the Kremlin is preparing for a potential, if unlikely, attack being directed on the Russian capital.

Photographs published on social media on Thursday showed a Pantsir missile system had been installed on the roof of an eight-story building used by the Russian defence ministry along the Moskva River.

Continue reading...

US and Israel blame Iran after drone strikes oil tanker off Oman

Posted on by

Pacific Zircon, linked to Israeli billionaire, said to have been ‘hit by projectile’ but suffered only minor damage

The US and Israel have pointed the finger at Iran after an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire was struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman.

The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defence official told the Associated Press.

Continue reading...

Drone analysis in Ukraine suggests Iran has supplied Russia since war began

Posted on by

Guardian visits space used by Ukrainian military intelligence to examine captured drones

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukraine’s military has shown the Guardian evidence that at least some of the Iranian-made drones used by Russia in its war were probably supplied after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February.

Ukraine said it first noticed that Russia was using Iranian-supplied weapons in September. Since then, Russia has successfully used them to target Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure, causing serious power shortages.

Continue reading...

Iran to hold public trials for up to 2,000 detained in protests

Posted on by

The country’s judiciary says those marching against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini will be tried

Iran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he was shocked by the number of innocent protesters who were being illegally and violently arrested. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has already announced that she is to ask the European Union to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

Continue reading...

Iran provides ‘technical support’ for Russian drones killing civilians, says US

Posted on by

Iranians brought trainers and technical support to Crimea to help Russians use drones ‘with better lethality’, White House says

Iran has significantly deepened its involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by providing technical support for Russian pilots flying Iranian-made drones to bomb civilian targets, the White House has confirmed.

The national security council lead spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Thursday that it was the US’s understanding that the Iranian advisers were in Crimea to provide training and maintenance – but not to actually pilot the drones – after Russian forces experienced difficulties in operating the unmanned flying bombs.

Continue reading...

Russia threatens to ‘reassess collaboration’ with UN chief over drone inspection

Posted on by

Ambassador denies drones fired on Ukraine are supplied by Iran and calls UN investigation ‘illegitimate’

Russia has threatened that it will reassess cooperation with the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, if he sends United Nations experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a UN resolution.

Speaking after a closed-door UN security council meeting on Moscow’s use of drones, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, called on Guterres and his staff to “abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation”. He also threatened Russia would withdraw from the grain deal that has allowed Ukrainian grain to be transported out of Black Sea ports.

Continue reading...

Iran agrees to supply missiles as well as drones to Russia

Posted on by

Defence secretary Ben Wallace flies to Washington to discuss dangerous new phase in invasion of Ukraine

Iran has deepened its commitment to supplying arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine by agreeing to provide a batch of medium-range missiles, as well as large numbers of cheap but effective drones, according to US and Iranian security officials.

The surface-to-surface missiles are designed to supplement the severely run-down stock of Russian missiles, as part of a bid to systematically destroy Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure ahead of a brutal winter.

Continue reading...

Ukraine crowdfunding raises almost $10m in 24 hours to buy kamikaze drones

Posted on by

Money raised after wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities on Monday will be used to support army

A crowdfunding appeal that was launched after Russian attacks on cities across the country on Monday has raised $9.6m (£8.7m) in 24 hours for the purchase of kamikaze drones for the Ukrainian armed forces.

An initial 50 Ram II drones, unmanned aerial vehicles with a 3kg explosive payload, designed and built by Ukrainian companies, will be bought with the money, along with three control stations.

Continue reading...

Mark Hamill calls for more drones for Ukraine to fight Russian invasion

Posted on by

Star Wars actor promotes Ukrainian drive for donations and compares Russia to ‘evil empire’

The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has said Ukraine needs more drones to fight off the Russian invasion and compared Moscow to the dark side of the force in the film series.

Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the films, was made an ambassador to the United24 project – which Ukraine set up to elicit donations, including the donation of drones to the Ukrainian army – by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Continue reading...

‘War-enabling, not war-winning’: how are drones affecting the Ukraine war?

Posted on by

Analysis: Ukraine is enjoying a lot of propaganda success with its Turkish-designed TB2s, as Russia plays catchup

Shot after shot pounded into the Russian missile battery hidden by the lighthouse on Snake Island, a Black Sea rock 22 miles (35km) from the Ukrainian coast. The edited video, released by the Ukrainian military, showed the strike and its aftermath – all taken from a Turkish-designed Bayraktar TB2 drone.

Until then, evidence of the TB2 – a remotely piloted killer drone with a range of up to 190 miles – had largely disappeared from the conflict. The assumption was that the two dozen or so that Ukraine had bought from Turkey had been shot down and Ankara, not wanting to upset Russia, had declined to supply more.

Continue reading...

Suspected drone attack kills three in Abu Dhabi and raises tensions

Posted on by

Yemen’s Houthi forces claim strikes, which follow pressure on Iran to kickstart nuclear talks with US

Houthi forces in Yemen have claimed responsibility for an apparent drone attack in Abu Dhabi that killed three people and is likely to raise regional tensions as a crucial phase nears in nuclear discussions with Iran.

The strikes, which also injured six people, left flames billowing from an oil storage site near the airport of the United Arab Emirates’ capital. A separate explosion, which is also thought to have been caused by a drone, caused minor damage. Two Indian nationals and one Pakistani were killed amid the fireballs. All the wounded were reported to be lightly hurt.

Continue reading...

UK accused of ‘targeted killing’ after drone strike on arms dealer to IS

Posted on by

Rights charity Reprieve seeks answers from MoD over death of Abu Hamza al-Shuhail in Syria in October

Britain has been accused of reviving a policy of “targeted killing” after it emerged that the RAF had killed an arms dealer linked to Islamic State in a precision drone strike in Syria at the end of October.

Reprieve, a human rights charity, asked “what are the criteria” used to justify who can be targeted in a “track and kill” drone strike, and called on ministers to tell the Commons why this strike was deemed necessary.

Continue reading...

Ethiopia-Turkey pact fuels speculation about drone use in Tigray war

Posted on by

Reports say Ethiopia wants to buy Bayraktar TB2 drones after military cooperation agreement was signed with Ankara

Ethiopia’s government has forged an alliance with Turkey, amid reports that it wants to deploy armed Turkish drones in its bitter war against forces from the region of Tigray.

Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, signed a military cooperation agreement on a visit Ankara in August with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Continue reading...