Monday, April 11, 2011 | 7:13 p.m.
WASHINGTON - The Predator drone operators at Creech Air Force Base are used to killing foreigners when they remote fire on enemy targets from the base about 30 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
But they’ve never potentially taken out one of their own.
The Pentagon is investigating the deaths of two members of the U.S. military believed to have been killed by a Predator drone strike in southern Afghanistan’s Sangin province, considered the most dangerous in the war-torn country.
According to various reports, U.S. Marine reservist Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, 26, and Navy Corpsman Benjamin Rast, 23, were killed by a Hellfire missile last Wednesday shot from a U.S. Air Force Predator drone overhead. The strike was called in by Marines under fire in the area.
If the investigation confirms suspicions, it would be the first time that U.S. military personnel have been killed by friendly fire involving a Predator drone.
The Obama administration has increased the use of Predator drones in war zones like Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, and they remain in reserve for NATO’s use in Libya.
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