Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
This is a rather odd incident if true. Why would Algeria shoot down a (US) drone over Mali?
Except for a crash in this case, an alternative reply would be - just for example (and provided it was Algeria at all) - that there is a very clearly defined 'no go' area for US forces along the border between Algeria and Mali.

This zone is up to 150km wide (on N-S axis) in NW Mali, and between 30 and 80km wide in N and NE Mali. There are four commercial corridors through it though (all on N-S axis).

Washington (and Paris) agreed to respect this zone (in exchange for rights of US [and French] planes to 'cut the corner' over SW and SE Algeria), and usually respected it so far: the EP-3s from Rota were not flying there, the MQ-1s and RQ-4s from Sigonella were not flying there etc. Surely, back in March this year, the US several times requested 'special permission' to fly its E-8s and EP-3s into that zone, and these were sometimes permitted to approach to less than 20km to the Algerian border.

Algerians are cooperative in regards of pursuing common enemies, but there are limits of this cooperation.