Several thousand demonstrators formed a human chain along the perimeter of a U.S. Air Force Base in southwest Germany on Saturday in protest against drone operations by the United States.

Several thousand demonstrators formed a human chain along the perimeter of a U.S. Air Force Base in southwest Germany on Saturday in protest against drone operations by the United States.

The demonstration was organized by the alliance "Stop Ramstein - No Drone War", which says the Ramstein base transmits information between operators in the United States and unmanned drone aircraft in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria.

Police estimated 3-4,000 people had formed the chain close to the base, which serves as the headquarters for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Organizers spoke of 5-7,000 people. No comment was available on Saturday from officials at Ramstein.

The use of drones is highly controversial in Germany, where an aversion to military conflict has prevailed since World War Two. Organizers say allowing data for drone deployments to be routed through Ramstein goes against the German constitution and want the base's satellite relay station to be closed.

Nearly 15 years after a drone first fired missiles in combat, the U.S. military program has expanded to become an everyday part of the war machine for carrying out surveillance and launching strikes.

Critics say drones often miss their intended targets, can only partly relay what is happening on the ground and encourage warfare with impunity, waged by people at computer screens far from danger.

President Barack Obama last month approved a drone strike in a remote area of Pakistan that killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour. U.S. officials said he had been overseeing plans for new attacks on U.S. targets in Kabul.

The U.S. and Australia have pushed back plans for the deployment of a 2,500-strong Marine Air Ground Task Force to Australia's Northern Territory until 2020 as they nail down the final details, including cost-sharing, Australian officials say.

The Marine Corps started building its presence in the port of Darwin in 2012 and grew its rotational force, which spends six months of the year training there, to just under 1,200 troops by 2014.

However, the growth of the force, which was to have included the task force within five years, has stalled with U.S. and Australian officials reporting only 1,250 Marines there this summer.

Australian Defence Force officials said in an email that they would work toward rotations of 2,500 Marines and equipment to Darwin by around 2020.

Australian national security consultant Ross Babbage said the two countries have been negotiating for three years over who would pay costs associated with the rotational force.

"There is no space on RAAF Darwin and Robertson Barracks (the facilities where Marines stay in Darwin) to facilitate that kind of growth (up to 2,500 Marines)"

PLANS to deploy additional Marines to the Top End continue to be delayed while Australia and the US figure out the final details.

The original plan was to have a 2500-strong Marine Air Ground Task Force in the Territory until 2020. However, issues such as cost-sharing have caused delays in the number of Marines who can be stationed in the Top End.

The NT News reported in April that one of the problems was which country would pay for the toilets, as well as other housing and utilities, including power and sewerage. It appears these negotiations are still continuing, with only 1250 Marines here this dry season.

US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Australian Defence Force officials said in an email the next rotation was still unclear.

The political situation in the US could also be playing a part in the delays, after Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump argued countries with a US military presence should be paying the United States.

Protests against American military presence in Japan continued on Saturday, as the country’s defense minister lodged a formal complaint over the latest case of alleged murder and rape of a young Japanese woman by a US military base employee.

Gen Nakatani visited the US Kadena Air Base on Saturday to formally protest the alleged crime to its commander Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson.

"I deliver a strong message of regret and at the same time make a protest,” he said as cited by the public broadcaster NHK.

Japanese officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed outrage over the latest in a string of crimes, which has been poisoning US-Japanese military ties for decades. The country’s Foreign Ministry filed a formal complaint over the case as well.

Critics of the deployment of US troops in Japan complain of the crimes committed by American personnel against local residents, environmental damage done by US bases and other negative sides. Okinawa Island hosts roughly half of all American troops in Japan, and sentiment against the arrangement are especially strong there.

“We will never forgive you,” protesters chanted outside Kadena’s barbed wire fence on Friday, according to the Asahi Shimbun. “U.S. bases should get out.”

Japanese leaders reacted with outrage after a U.S. Marine veteran was arrested Thursday in connection with the death of a Japanese woman near a U.S. air base on the island of Okinawa.

Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a 32-year-old civilian contractor at Kadena Air Base, admitted to strangling the woman, his defense attorney told Stars and Stripes — though the attorney questioned the condition under the which the admission was made. Rina Shimabukuro had been missing since last month.

The 20-year-old’s body was discovered in a wooded location Thursday after Gadson told investigators where to look, according to the Associated Press.

The incident comes at a crucial juncture for the two countries. President Obama is scheduled to visit Japan next week for a Group of Seven summit, after which he is scheduled to visit Hiroshima to remember the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II. Obama is also expected to highlight his message of nuclear nonproliferation and to discuss future relations between the two nations.

Those relations have been tested, however, by crimes committed by U.S. military personnel on or near American bases, including Kadena. The base is home to more than half of the 47,000 American troops based in Japan.

Many Japanese, including Okinawa’s governor, Takeshi Onaga, want the American bases gone altogether.