Categories: Africa

US military pilots injured by Chinese lasers in Djibouti: Pentagon

Officials have issued a formal diplomatic complaint and demanded Beijing investigate a series of incidents dating back several weeks, spokeswoman Dana White said.

“They are very serious incidents,” White said. “This activity poses a true threat to our airmen.”

In one case, two pilots on a C-130 cargo plane suffered minor eye injuries as they came in to land at the base in the Horn of Africa nation, another spokeswoman, Major Sheryll Klinkel, told AFP.

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Located at Djibouti international airport, the US military’s Camp Lemonnier base is its only permanent facility in Africa. It is used largely for counter-terrorism operations in East Africa and Yemen.

China last year opened a naval base in Djibouti, only a few miles (kilometers) from the US facility, marking the first overseas base for Beijing’s rapidly growing military.

White said she was “confident” that whoever had shone the high-powered lasers was Chinese.

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Officials told The Wall Street Journal the laser likely came from the Chinese base.

The Federal Aviation Administration last month published a warning to pilots to use extreme caution in the area.

“There have been multiple lazing events involving a high-power laser in the vicinity,” the warning reads.

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By Agence France Presse