Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Iraq is pressing the United States for a combat unmanned aerial vehicle which it considers more urgent than its request for AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.

Officials said the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has expressed the need for a U.S.-origin combat UAV.

The officials said Al Maliki urged Washington for the Predator B, a platform used for air strikes on Al Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

“The Iraqis see Predator as vital to stopping the revolt in Anbar,” an official said.

The official said the Iraqi military viewed Predator as more effective than its order of AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. He said the Predator would eliminate the need for extensive pilot training and the prospect that crews could be killed by surface-to-air missiles.

The administration of President Barack Obama has approved a range of major combat platforms to Iraq in 2014. They included the F-16 multi-role fighter, Apache, air trainers as well as Hellfire air-to-ground missiles.

Officials said Baghdad was not insisting on operating the Predators. They said the Iraqi military proposed that the U.S. military operate the Predators while Iraqi personnel underwent training.

On May 9, the U.S. news website Foreign Policy, deemed close to the
administration, reported that Baghdad also sought the Reaper UAV, a variant
of Predator. Foreign Policy said Iraq has already acquired U.S. surveillance
UAVs.

“We are after a stronger capability,” a senior Iraqi official was quoted
as saying. “We want attack capability.”

  Anbar province, Iraq makes urgent plea for U.S. Predator drones, Nouri Al Maliki, Reaper UAV