The front-line of the stuggle to take out ISIS’ most deadly fighters and recruiters like the infamous ‘White Widow’ Sally Jones isn’t waged on the battle fields of Syria or Iraq but from an air-conditioned trailer in the middle of the Nevada desert.
Thousands of miles from the heat of war pilots sit in a sun-bleached desert base 45 miles north of the bright lights of Las Vegas guiding the lethal Predator drones that have revolutionized modern combat.
From cool, dark booths at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada, pilots and sensor operators work closely with large teams of intelligence analysts who sift streams of real-time data transmitted by the drones on the other side of the planet.
The front-line of the stuggle to take out ISIS’ most deadly fighters and recruiters isn’t waged on the battle fields of Syria or Iraq but from an air-conditioned trailer (pictured) in the middle of the Nevada desert
From cool, dark booths at Creech Air Force Base (pictured) in Indian Springs, Nevada, pilots and sensor operators work closely with large teams of intelligence analysts who sift streams of real-time data transmitted by the drones on the other side of the planet
And it is a pilot at this base who is said to have remotely taken out the British ISIS recruiter Sally Jones.
Jones, from Chatham in Kent, fled to Syria with her son in 2013 before becoming a recruiter for the ISIS terror group.
The so-called ‘White Widow’ was killed near the border of Iraq and Syria four months ago by a drone from the base, according to The Mirror, as she tried to flee the group’s stronghold in Raqqa.
Jones, 50, a grandmother, was considered Britain’s most wanted woman and was a recruiter and propagandist for ISIS.
The Muslim convert fled Britain to join ISIS back alongside toyboy lover Junaid Hussain, taking her then-nine-year-old son JoJo with her.
And it is a pilot at this base who is said to have remotely taken out the British ISIS recruiter Sally Jones. Pictured, a US drone near the Nevada base (file photo)
‘When it comes to fighting our nation’s wars… I think it would be hard to find a base in the United States Air Force in the continental United States that is more engaged… defending America every single day,’ said commander Case Cunningham (pictured)
Since 2001, Creech has become the hub for remotely piloted combat missions in the Middle East and crews there handle nearly half of all the Air Force’s global drone flights on any given day.
‘When it comes to fighting our nation’s wars… I think it would be hard to find a base in the United States Air Force in the continental United States that is more engaged… defending America every single day,’ commander Case Cunningham told the Review-Journal earlier this year.
‘The amount of territory that’s been taken back overseas from terrorist organizations is absolutely remarkable.’
But many of the pilots who fly the drones have said they face burnout from the long hours of flying missions.
Sally Jones (pictured), from Chatham in Kent, fled to Syria with her son in 2013 before becoming a recruiter for the ISIS terror group
The Muslim convert fled Britain to join ISIS back in 2013 alongside toyboy lover Junaid Hussain (pictured), taking her then-nine-year-old son JoJo
One pilot was part of a team that spent 600 hours watching Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al Qaeda in Iraq, before he was killed.
‘For us it’s anything but a video game,’ said Captain Tim, a pilot based at the site, addressing one of the main criticisms levelled at the drone programme.
‘From here you’re having an impact on the battlefield.’
Drone pilots also face the added stress of going to war during the day but returning home at night to their families unlike usual military deployments where servicemen and women are away for up to six months at a time.
Indeed, a Pentagon study two years ago found that drone pilots experienced similar mental problems such as post traumatic stress disorder at the same rate as pilots of combat aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And the base is not without its critics.
Just last week, two demonstrators were arrested at the site for blocking an entrance gate during a protest.
Codepink and Veterans for Peace were among the groups that gathered at the entrance to Creech Air Force Base to protest the use of unmanned aircraft in military actions.
Veterans for Peace spokesman Toby Blome, from California, blasted the death toll of ‘thousands of innocent children who have been killed by drone warfare.’