CIA to Expand Assassination Drones against Syrian Extremists: LA Times

Local Editor

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is considering a secret contingency plan to expand the US assassination drone strikes to Syria, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Friday.

Former and current American officials said the Counterterrorism Center, which runs CIA's drone operations in Pakistan and Yemen, has recently tasked some of its agents to collect further intelligence on the situation in Syria for possible lethal drone strikes against "radical Islamists" at a later stage, the newspaper said.

Citing the unnamed officials, the newspaper said President Barack Obama had not authorized any drone missile strikes in Syria yet, and none were under consideration. However CIA's Counterterrorism Center had recently shifted several targeting officers to improve intelligence gathering on militants in Syria.

The targeting officers have formed a unit with colleagues who were tracking Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq. Veteran militants from Iraq are believed to have moved to Syria and joined anti-government Islamist militias there, the report said.
The targeting officers focusing on Syria are based at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the paper said. But the agency is working closely with Saudi, Jordanian and other regional spy services active in Syria, according to The Times.

"The State Department believes that one of the strongest Syrian opposition militias, Al Nusra Front, is a terrorist organization that is indistinguishable from the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq," The Times noted.

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