New US drone bases to strike Somalia, Yemen

One of the new installations is being set up in Ethiopia, a close US ally in the fight against the Islamist Shebab that controls much of Somalia, while another is being established in the Seychelles, the Washington Post reported.A small fleet of so-called hunter-killer drones -- able to fire Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs -- already based on the Indian Ocean archipelago resumed operations this month after a pilot mission demonstrated that they could effectively patrol Somalia from there, it said.The Post said the United States is also conducting drone missions over both Somalia and Yemen from the small African country Djibouti, seeking to weaken Al-Qaeda affiliates in both countries.Its a conscious recognition that those are the hot spots developing right now, it quoted a former senior US military official as saying.The United States regularly launches drone strikes against suspected militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where it claims to have greatly degraded Al-Qaedas core leadership. However, independent reports say the drones have mostly killed civilians.