BAGHDAD, Sept 8: A US military drone dropped a bomb that killed two suspected roadside bombers in northern Iraq, the American military said on Saturday, hailing the operation as the first of its kind.

On seeing two “enemy fighters” a week ago in the Qayyrah area of Nineveh province, troops requested aerial backup and a Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle was sent, it said in a statement.

“Pilots guided the Hunter operator to the scene where it set up for a strike mission and dropped its precision munition, killing both unknown enemies and marking a first in army aviation history,” the military said.

The commander of Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Company, Captain Raymond Fields, said the successful mission would set the “tone for army aviation in years to come”. “We will see more weaponised army unmanned vehicles being used ... to save not only our aviator brethren but our army ground brethren from enemy contact.”—AFP