Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — Iraq plans to block a U.S. program to deploy unmanned
aerial vehicles for force protection missions.

Officials said the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki would
veto a U.S. plan to acquire and operate scores of tactical UAVs to
protect staffers of the American embassy in Baghdad. They said the UAV
operations would disrupt air traffic around Baghdad and infringe on Iraqi
sovereignty.

“Now, that the U.S. military has left Iraq, there is no way that any government would allow the Americans to again control our skies,” an official said.

Officials said the State Department has sought to brief the Al Maliki government on the UAV program. They said the State Department wants to operate up to 50 tactical UAVs to accompany convoys from and to the U.S. embassy.

The U.S. project comes amid increasing tension between Baghdad and Washington. More than 100 Americans, most of them private contractors, were detained both in Baghdad and at the city’s international airport for alleged visa, weapons and employment infractions in January.

“One of the things we’re looking forward to doing is sitting down with
the Iraqis in the coming month or two to start thinking about how they want
to work with,” U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy said on Jan. 30.

The State Department has taken over security responsibility from the
U.S. military in Iraq. State has formed a 5,500-member security team to
protect the embassy’s 11,000 staffers as well as VIPs who arrive in Baghdad.

Over the last year, State has administered tenders for armored personnel
carriers, security subcontractors, training specialists and helicopters. In
2011, the department, with about 25 unmanned platforms, began operating UAVs
to determine their feasibility in urban security operations and plans to
procure micro-UAVs that would fly largely unnoticed in the skies of Iraq.

“The UAV’s being utilized by the State Department are not armed, nor are
they capable of being armed,” State said.

Senior Iraqi officials have insisted that they were not briefed on the
State Department UAV plan. In interviews with the New York Times, Iraqi
National Security Adviser Falih Fayad, Interior Minister Adnan Asadi and Al
Maliki’s leading aide, Ali Mussawi, said they were unaware of the U.S.
project.

“Our sky is our sky, not the U.S.A.’s sky,” Asadi was quoted as saying.

  Adnan Asadi, Ali Mussawi, Falih Fayad, Iraq: Drones to protect Americans violate nation’s sovereignty, Michele Flournoy, Nouri Al Maliki, U.S. State Department