After the Ministry of Defence confirmed the UK’s use of armed drones in Afghanistan, anti-war protestors gathered outside an RAF base in Lincolnshire.
The RAF began remotely operating its Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles deployed to Afghanistan from the Lincolnshire airbase earlier this week.
Previously operated from a United States Air Force base in Nevada, the aircraft are used to support coalition ground forces in Afghanistan.
Drone missions over Afghanistan have been flown by RAF pilots operating on British soil for the first time
The hi-tech Reaper drones are primarily used to gather intelligence on enemy activity on the ground, but they also carry 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles for precision strikes on insurgents.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the RAF said it had commenced supporting the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan ground troops with “armed intelligence and surveillance missions” remotely piloted from RAF Waddington.
Members of the Stop The War Coalition, CND, The Drone Campaign Network and War on Want will march from Lincoln to the nearby RAF Waddington base.
The organisers of the protest march and rally claimed that drones made it easier for politicians to launch military interventions and have increased civilian casualties.
Commenting ahead of the protest, War on Want senior campaigns officer Rafeef Ziadah said, “Drones, controlled far away from conflict zones, ease politicians’ decisions to launch military strikes and order extrajudicial assassinations, without democratic oversight or accountability to the public.
“Now is the time to ban killer drones – before it is too late.”
Stop the War Coalition Vice Chairman Chris Nineham claimed that drones were being used to continue the “deeply unpopular War on Terror” with no public scrutiny.
A majority of the British public supported the United Kingdom government aiding the United States target and kill known terrorists with drone strikes, a survey published earlier in March suggested.
However backing for the controversial practise dropped significantly if they were told civilians would be injured or killed in the attacks.
The findings came in a joint study from the University of Surrey’s Centre for International Intervention and defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in collaboration with YouGov.
The Ministry of Defence has defended its use of drones in Afghanistan, which it says have saved the lives of countless military personnel and civilians.