This is a new airbase in the Sahara desert. It’s home to secret drone operations by the C.I.A. That’s what American and Nigerien officials have told The Times. This is that same location just seven months earlier. We’re going to show you two things: How the base grew out of a small commercial airstrip and what’s important about this location. This image from January 2018 shows a simple airstrip surrounded by sand. Here’s what it looked like to land there in a civilian plane in August. This is the civilian area. Just eight days later, we see that construction on the drone base has begun. That construction moves fast. A month later, we see new structures and security walls. We also see what appear to be several new defensive positions beyond the compound’s walls. By September, we see the base has more capacity. There’s a second and bigger taxiway. And that taxiway connects to a new clamshell tent — probably an aircraft shelter. The layout and dimensions are similar to those at known drone bases. So where is this, and why does it matter? The base is just outside a town in northeastern Niger. But here’s a twist: The U.S. military is building its own drone base just 350 miles away. It will be there to target extremists in the region. The C.I.A. won’t comment on why it needs its own base. It could be because it’s closer to southern Libya, which sees a lot of extremist activity. But it could also reflect how the C.I.A. is expanding its drone operations under President Trump. This would run counter to an Obama-era policy, one that sought to put the military, not the C.I.A., in charge of drone attacks.