U.S. military pilots flying in the Middle East are facing laser pointer attacks at a rate higher than the Pentagon has previously acknowledged, according to a report.
Officials at U.S. Air Forces Central Command in Qatar told The Wall Street Journal that military pilots in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have reported 350 attacks in the first seven months of 2018, a sharp increase from 400 attacks overall in 2017.
Such attacks had been declining in recent years, officials said, but are on the rise in 2018 and are linked to terrorist groups including the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda.
The attacks are typically aimed at pilots during landing procedures in an attempt to cause an accident, officials say, though no crashes due to laser attacks have occurred thus far. The potency of the lasers ranged from hand-held laser pointers to military-grade lasers, according to the Journal.
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Military pilots attacked with laser beams 350 times in last 7 months: report https://t.co/pzcTLlftv9 pic.twitter.com/CPyhW7DmgX
— The Hill (@thehill) August 17, 2018
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