The Central Intelligence Agency has been launching lethal drone strikes against terrorists from a base in Saudi Arabia for last two years, US media reported Wednesday. The revelation that the US spy agency has conducted its policy of targeted killings with the kingdom's aid could strain the historically close ties between Washington and Riyadh.
The United States has relied on the Saudi drone base to go after al Qaeda affiliate network in Yemen, The New York Times said. The controversial drone policy is set to come under scrutiny Thursday, when President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the CIA faces Senate confirmation hearings. John Brennan, the administration's chief counterterrorism advisor, played a key role in securing Saudi consent for the drone base, the Washington Post reported.
The former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia has been the lead architect of Obama's policy on drone strikes. Prior to Wednesday, news organisations had refrained from reporting on the existence of the base over government concerns that doing so would undermine operations against targets from the terrorist network al Qaeda. The reports come as the White House finds itself under fire for a document released Monday outlining the administration's justification for killing US citizens suspected of operating as terrorists in foreign countries.
The policy became public knowledge in April 2010, when the White House placed the first known US citizen, Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, on a CIA kill list. He was killed by a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen, followed by another lethal attack on his 16-year-old son two weeks later.
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