Brits protests against opening of drones control center in UK

Hundreds of people are protesting at the UK airbase from which the country has begun controlling its fleet of assassination drones in Afghanistan. Previously, the remote pilots were deployed only in the US.

Four anti-war groups – including CND, the Drone Campaign Network, Stop the War and War on Want – are staging a nonviolent protest on Saturday over drone use by the Waddington base in Lincolnshire, reports RT.

Peace campaigners have started marching from the city of Lincoln to RAF Waddington. Protesters expressed fears over the UK's development of the drone program, which is marred by its association with its US counterpart.

The British Royal Air Force (RAF) has opened drone control stations this week to work in tandem with Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Together with the Nevada unit, the squadron will be remotely controlling UK's drones, including the armed Reaper drones, which can drop laser-guided bombs and launch Hellfire missiles.

There are five British Reapers deployed in the region, and the Ministry of Defense plans to double that number this year.

Washington uses CIA-operated drones in the targeted killings of suspected militants, which critics say results in an unacceptable number of civilian deaths and has shaky legal and moral grounds.