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Taliban claims to capture surveillance drone in East of Afghanistan
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs group in Afghanistan has claimed to capture a surveillance drone in eastern NangarharThe unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan. The group’s front man Zabiullah Mujahid said the drone was downed in Merano village of Behsud district of Nangarhar province. He claimed that the drone which seems to be of ScanEagle type belongs to the US forces in Afghanistan but the Afghan army also uses the same drone for the surveillance operations. The Afghan forces received several ScanEagle drones under a contract from the US government worth $70 million. The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced in November last year that a contract worth $70 million ha sbeen awarded to a US-based company for the procurement of the ScanEagle drones. A statement by DoD said the systems include 65 ScanEagle drones in total, along with spare parts, support equipment, field service support, as well as an in-theatre training facility. The United States started the delivery of the surveillance drones as part of the coalition forces efforts to enhance the capabilities of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), specifically the Afghan Air Force. Posted by: Fred 2016-09-28 |
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