Saturday, August 24, 2019

Drone wars

JERUSALEM/DAMASCUS, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft on Saturday struck Iranian forces near Damascus that had been planning to launch "killer drones" at targets in Israel, an Israeli military spokesman said.
"The strike targeted Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite militias which were preparing to advance attack plans targeting sites in Israel from within Syria over the last number of days," the military said in a statement.
The elite Quds Force is the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters the forces on Thursday had been preparing to launch "killer drones" armed with explosives at northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had thwarted the planned Iranian attack. "Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression," he said on Twitter.

2 Israeli drones crash over Beirut, Hezbollah denies firing

BEIRUT (AP) — Two Israeli drones crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital overnight without the militants firing on them, a spokesman for the group said Sunday, saying the first fell on the roof of a building housing Hezbollah’s media office while the second landed in a plot behind it.
The drones crashed amid heightened tensions between neighboring Israel and Iran, which backs Hezbollah, and shortly after Israeli warplanes attacked targets near the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israeli aircraft buzzed over Beirut on Sunday, hours after the drones crashed, raising fears of a wider conflict.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif said a small, unmanned reconnaissance drone fell on a building housing Hezbollah’s media office in the Moawwad neighborhood in Dahyeh, the group’s stronghold in southern Beirut.

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