location on 16 September 2001. The first mission was flown over Kabul and Kandahar on 18 September without carrying weapons. Subsequent host nation approval was granted on 7 October and the first armed mission was flown on the same day. In February 2002, armed Predators are thought to have been used to destroy a sport utility vehicle belonging to suspected Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and mistakenly killed Afghan scrap metal collectors near Zhawar Kili because one of them resembled Osama bin Laden. On 4 March 2002, a CIA-operated Predator fired a Hellfire missile into a reinforced Taliban machine gun bunker that had pinned down an Army Ranger team whose CH-47 Chinook had crashed on the top of Takur Ghar Mountain in Afghanistan. Previous attempts by flights of F-15 and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft were unable to destroy the bunker. This action took place during what has become known as the "Battle of Roberts Ridge", a part of Operation Anaconda. This appears to be the first use of such a weapon in a close air support role. On 6 April 2011, 2 US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan when the Predator had its first friendly fire incident. This occurred when observers in Indiana did not relay their doubts about the target to the operators at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. On 5 May 2013, an MQ-1 Predator surpassed 20,000 flight hours over Afghanistan by a single Predator. Predator P107 achieved the milestone while flying a 21-hour combat mission; P107 was first delivered in October 2004. Pakistan From at least 2003 until 2011, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has allegedly been operating the drones out of Shamsi airfield in Pakistan to attack militants in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. During this period, the MQ-1 Predator fitted with Hellfire missiles was successfully used to kill a number of prominent al Qaeda operatives. On 13 January 2006, 18 civilians were unintentionally killed by the Predator. According to Pakistani authorities, the U.S. strike was based on faulty intelligence. Iraq An Iraqi MiG-25 shot down a Predator performing reconnaissance over the no fly zone in Iraq on 23 December 2002. This was the first time in history a conventional aircraft and a drone had engaged each other in combat. Predators had been armed with AIM-92 Stinger air-to-air missiles, and were purportedly being used to "bait" Iraqi fighters, then run. However, Predators are slower than