A unmanned US spy plane Monday thwarted an Iraqi rebel mortar attack on a sprawling US base, firing two missiles which killed 11 insurgents and wounded four more, the military said.
US forces "located two groups of attackers with a coalition unmanned aerial vehicle and engaged them," according to a US Army statement.
"A US Air Force Predator expended two Hellfire missiles against a mortar firing position in the vicinity of Balad" in central Iraq, the Air Force said for its part.
The Predator is a small remote-controlled drone aircraft which has been deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan for surveillance purposes.
The drone "was also used to track the wounded, who were observed being loaded into two vehicles at one of the mortar sites," the Army said, adding that 11 rebels had been killed.
"The vehicles took the wounded to a hospital in Khalis, in Diyala Province" where US and Iraqi forces arrested six of the suspects, the statement added.
The dawn raid by rebels targeted base Anaconda, near Balad.
