Which says there is no presence in only these countries:
Venezuela
French Guiana
Ivory Coast
Libya
Western Sahara
Guinea-Bissau
Eritrea
Lesotho
Eswatini
Syria
Iraq
Iran
Afghanistan
North Korea
Vanuatu
New Caledonia
Falkland Islands
...Don't know how accurate that is, since it says there are 38 US troops in Russia? Maybe they're all moonlighting as diplomats?
That list is wrong. At first glance the Vatican should be on it, the Falkland Islands shouldn't (not being a country), and Syria shouldn't. This very attack was initially believed to have been against one of the US military bases in Syria.
As others have pointed out marine embassy guards exist. Many countries, including the US, also assign military attachés as diplomatic personnel.
I think these might be the marine embassy guards, which would make sense since the us doesn't have embassies in these countries, but it does have one in Russia.
Those last two are not sovereign nations, nor are Western Sahara or French Guiana.
Otherwise, that mostly reads like a list of nations that lack normalized diplomatic relations with the US, hence no embassy staff. Except for Vanuatu, which is in the process of getting a US embassy.
EDIT: As others pointed out, Syria and Iraq do have US troops. All together I'd say this is a pretty terrible source!
French Guiana and New Caledonia are French territories, not countries. They have no US consulate (go to Suriname for French Guiana and to Fidji for New Caledonia).
> As the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was returning to the small installation known as Tower 22, according to a preliminary report cited by two officials, who were not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity...
SO - we're not using IFF for drones, or the IFF was spoofed, or the ground-based IFF equipment was non-operational or ignored...or the latter just sucks so bad that the overworked troops don't bother.
Attacks on US bases in the region have become a routine. Expect more casualties in the following months and years.
The US does not has a good response to this escalation. It could continue to bomb proxies, but it has almost no effect and it may even be counter-productive since it plays right into the Iranian propaganda, especially in the light of the Gaza war. Meanwhile, a big war with Iran would be a VERY risky endeavor with extremely unpredictable consequences for the global economy.
You don’t. Most counter-drone technologies are unreliable, and even if they are not, they are extremely expensive and only effective against large drones. In the era of single drones, you will soon face a swarm of drones that can fly intelligently and pinpoint the target or person of interest. In fact, I believe several countries already have such technology, as I managed to build a PoC swarm that can evade/avoid obstacles and identify objects, while communicating with each other and the command and control. So it is definitely already out there.
Which says there is no presence in only these countries:
...Don't know how accurate that is, since it says there are 38 US troops in Russia? Maybe they're all moonlighting as diplomats?