Al Arabiya news
written by Al Arabiya and AFP staff
Thursday April 25, 2013
Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah said Thursday it did not send a drone over Israel, hours after the Israeli air force said it shot down an unmanned aircraft off the country’s northern coast.
“Hezbollah denies sending any unmanned drone toward occupied Palestine,” the movement's television channel Al-Manar said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu descried the incident as “extremely grave,” while Israel’s defense minister put the blame squarely on Hezbollah, which had said it was behind a previous drone infiltration on October 7.
“An unmanned aircraft (UAV) was identified approaching the coast of Israel and was successfully intercepted by IAF aircraft five nautical miles off the coast of Haifa at approximately 2:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) today,” the military said.
The incident took place as Netanyahu was flying to attend a ceremony in the Druze village of Julis, some 32 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Haifa, with the helicopter briefly landing after he received the news.
“I see this attempt to breach our borders as extremely grave,” the premier said. “We will continue to do whatever we must to protect the security of Israel's citizens.”
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters the drone had been identified moving down the Lebanese coast before reaching Israeli airspace.
“A little after 1:00 p.m., our aerial defense system identified [a drone] moving from north to south along the coast of Lebanon,” he said.
“Aircraft, helicopters and combat airplanes were alerted to the area and after confirmation that it was an unfriendly aircraft, they were approved to shoot it down.”
But despite widespread reports blaming Hezbollah, Lerner was cautious, saying the incident was still being investigated.
“We don’t know where the aircraft was coming from and where it was actually going,” he said, adding that the navy was “searching for the remains of the UAV” as part of the probe.
But deputy defense minister Danny Danon said it was clear that the Lebanese Shiite movement was behind the attack.
“We’re talking about another attempt by Hezbollah to send an unmanned drone into Israeli territory,” he told Israel’s army radio, describing it as “another attempt to destabilize the Middle East.”
Israel would respond to the incident in its own time, he said.
“We are ready and we will react as necessary,” Danon warned. “They know not to provoke us.”
On October 7, warplanes shot down an unarmed drone over Israel’s southern Negev desert after it entered the country’s airspace from the Mediterranean Sea, with Netanyahu blaming Hezbollah.
Several days later, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah confirmed his militants had sent an Iranian-built drone into Israeli airspace and claimed it had overflown sensitive sites in Israel.
He said the drone was “Iranian-built and assembled in Lebanon.”
In July 2006, the Israeli military shot down an unarmed drone operated by Hezbollah over the Jewish state’s territorial waters.
And on April 12, 2005, another pilotless Hezbollah aircraft succeeded in overflying part of northern Israel without being shot down.
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Long War Journal
written by Bill Roggio
December 4, 2011
The Iranian military has claimed it shot down the US' unarmed stealth RQ-170 Sentinel drone that is known as the "Beast of Kandahar." The claim was made by an unnamed Iranian official and was reported on a state-run television network. From Reuters:
"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted the unnamed source as saying."The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces.""The Iranian military's response to the American spy drone's violation of our airspace will not be limited to Iran's borders," the military source said, without elaborating.
Iran's English-language, state-runPressTV also reported that the RQ-170 was shot down over Iran. The US military released a statement saying an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle crashed in Western Afghanistan last week, and this may be the drone the Iranians are referring to. From the ISAF press release:
"The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."
Keep in mind that Iran claimed it shot down an RQ-170 over the Fordo nuclear site in July. That report was never confirmed.
The RQ-170 is operated by the US Air Force and is known to be based at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. It was used to conduct reconnaissance during the SEAL Team raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan in May.
The report of the RQ-170 shoot-down takes place as Iran's nuclear and weapons program has suffered a series of setbacks over the past year. Iran's nuclear facilities were hammered by the Stuxnet virus last year, and more recently, key weapons and nuclear infrastructure have been beset by a series of unexplained explosions. One such explosion, at a missile testing site in Bid Kaneh, appears to have destroyed most of the base. Iran has downplayed the explosions and said the blasts have not impacted its weapons programs.
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The Long War Journal
written by David Barnett
Friday April 26, 2013
Israel now reportedly believes that the drone the Israeli Air Force (IAF) intercepted on Thursday afternoon was sent by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Lebanon. The drone is said to have taken off from Lebanon and was intercepted over the Mediterranean Sea, five nautical miles west of the Israeli city of Haifa, at an altitude of 6,000 feet.
According to Army Radio, Israel now assesses that the drone was likely sent by IRGC members in Lebanon and that it was not carrying any explosives. Channel 2 reportedly has a similar report, and an account in Haaretz states that "it seems that those responsible for the launching of the drone were the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon."
These reports counter the claim of Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon that the drone was sent by Hezbollah. "By way of the Hezbollah, the Iranians are trying us and checking us.... We will respond at the point which we believe to be appropriate, but there will be a response," Danon said on Thursday.
On Thursday evening, the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah denied that it had sent the drone. "Hezbollah denies sending any unmanned drone towards occupied Palestine," a headline on Hezbollah's Al-Manar said.
Last October, the IAF shot down a drone, which Hezbollah took responsibility for, near the Yatir Forest in the northern Negev. When Hassan Nasrallah, the terror group's Secretary-General, announced that Hezbollah was behind the October drone, he said, "It is our natural right to send other reconnaissance flights inside occupied Palestine.... This is not the first time and will not be the last. We can reach any place we want."
Israeli authorities are reportedly still searching for the remains of Thursday's drone. In addition, the drone's mission remains unclear; some reports suggested that it was conducting surveillance on Israeli gas rigs in the Mediterranean, however. Israeli officials have expressed concern on a number of occasions that Hezbollah or other terror groups may try to target Israeli gas rigs in the Mediterranean.
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