#Camp Lemonnier Djibouti News Full Picture Of

Military base here, the combat hub for the Obama administration’s counterterrorism wars in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.Construction of New 20M Medical-Dental Facility Underway at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa DJIBOUTI , Africa (NNS) - In late December, golden shovels ceremoniously unearthed soil beneath the future Medical-Dental Facility on Camp Lemonnier . DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti — Around the clock, about 16 times a day, drones take off or land at a U.S. Thank you Cortney for being the real MVP Kelsey, a Chicago native, has just arrived in Djibouti and is eager to learn the ropes. Greetings from your new Red Cross staff member, Kelsey, and longstanding Red Cross Liaison, Cortney Cortney, hailing from West Palm Beach, Florida, was deployed to Camp Lemonnier pre-COVID19 and has been vital to Red Cross operation throughout the last few months.

EMS FirstResponders navy Djibouti. The exercise tests in mass casualty triage, care and first-aid practices. Readiness in ACTION Camp Lemonnier service members and staff conduct a mass casualty drill designed to sharpen skills and response readiness. Most of the armed drones, however, veer north across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, another unstable country where they are being used in an increasingly deadly war with an al-Qaeda franchise that has targeted the United States.Camp Lemonnier Djibouti. Some of the unmanned aircraft are bound for Somalia, the collapsed state whose border lies just 10 miles to the southeast. Since then, Camp Lemonnier has expanded to nearly 500 acres and a base of unparalleled importance, in.

Military has clandestinely transformed it into the busiest Predator drone base outside the Afghan war zone, a model for fighting a new generation of terrorist groups.The Obama administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal the legal and operational details of its targeted-killing program. Over the past two years, the U.S. Marines looking for a foothold in the region a decade ago.

Virtually the entire 500-acre camp is dedicated to counterterrorism, making it the only installation of its kind in the Pentagon’s global network of bases.Secrecy blankets most of the camp’s activities. Drone camp in the heart of Djibouti.Increasingly, the orders to find, track or kill those people are delivered to Camp Lemonnier. Drone camp in the heart of Djibouti.

Most of the commandos work incognito, concealing their names even from conventional troops on the base.In August, the Defense Department delivered a master plan to Congress detailing how the camp will be used over the next quarter-century. The records also chronicle the Pentagon’s ambitious plan to further intensify drone operations here in the coming months.The documents point to the central role played by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which President Obama has repeatedly relied on to execute the nation’s most sensitive counterterrorism missions.About 300 Special Operations personnel plan raids and coordinate drone flights from inside a high-security compound at Lemonnier that is dotted with satellite dishes and ringed by concertina wire. None of the documents is classified and many were acquired via public-records requests.Taken together, the previously undisclosed documents show how the Djibouti-based drone wars sharply escalated early last year after eight Predators arrived at Lemonnier. Baker, answered some general queries but declined to comment on drone operations or missions related to Somalia or Yemen.Despite the secrecy, thousands of pages of military records obtained by The Post — including construction blueprints, drone accident reports and internal planning memos — open a revealing window into Camp Lemonnier. Officials cited “operational security concerns,” although they have permitted journalists to visit in the past.After a Post reporter showed up in Djibouti uninvited, the camp’s highest-ranking commander consented to an interview — on the condition that it take place away from the base, at Djibouti's lone luxury hotel.

Camp Lemonnier Djibouti News Full Picture Of

Late that year, records show, the Pentagon dispatched eight unmanned MQ -1B Predator aircraft to Djibouti and turned Lemonnier into a full-time drone base.The impact was apparent months later: JSOC drones from Djibouti and CIA Predators from a secret base on the Arabian Peninsula converged over Yemen and killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric and prominent al-Qaeda member.Today, Camp Lemonnier is the centerpiece of an expanding constellation of half a dozen U.S. “However, operational security considerations prevent us from commenting on specific missions.”For nearly a decade, the United States flew drones from Lemonnier only rarely, starting with a 2002 strike in Yemen that killed a suspected ringleader of the attack on the USS Cole.That swiftly changed in 2010, however, after al-Qaeda’s network in Yemen attempted to bomb two U.S.-bound airliners and jihadists in Somalia separately consolidated their hold on that country. Military that oversees the camp, said in a statement. Military confirmed publicly for the first time the presence of remotely piloted aircraft — military parlance for drones — at Camp Lemonnier and said they support “a wide variety of regional security missions.”Intelligence collected from drone and other surveillance missions “is used to develop a full picture of the activities of violent extremist organizations and other activities of interest,” Africa Command, the arm of the U.S. In response to written questions from The Post, the U.S.

Dory, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for Africa. Djibouti’s port also offers easy access to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.“This is not an outpost in the middle of nowhere that is of marginal interest,” said Amanda J. Aircraft to reach hot spots such as Yemen or Somalia in minutes. Sandwiched between East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Camp Lemonnier enables U.S. Military is concerned, the country's strategic value is unparalleled.