The Syrian army said the drone, a Skylark, was downed near the southeastern province of Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights. The Israeli military has confirmed the downing of the drone and the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah posted pictures of the downed drone on social media pages.
The “sky rider,” as it’s known in Hebrew, is a miniature surveillance drone that can be launched by one or two people, depending on the model, and once airborne, provides a live video feed to the base on the ground.
The Israeli military said the circumstances of the incident were being investigated, but that there was no immediate proof that classified data could be retrieved from the device, Press TV reported.
Monday’s incident came after days of escalating tensions between Israel and Syria. Earlier in the week, Israel's minister for military affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, warned the Syrian government against launching ground-to-air missiles at Israeli warplanes carrying out strikes inside Syria. “The next time the Syrians use their air defense systems against our planes we will destroy them without the slightest hesitation,” Lieberman said on Israeli Public Radio on Sunday.
He added that the Israeli military will target any convoy of missiles or weapons destined for the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement. “The Syrians must understand that they are held responsible for these arms transfers to Hezbollah and that if they continue to allow them then we will do what we have to do."
The remarks came two days after the Syrian army announced in a statement that four Israeli fighter jets had violated the Arab country’s airspace, adding its air defense had shot down one of the military aircraft and hit another.
(Tasnim)
21/3/17
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The Israeli military has confirmed that a drone crashed in Syria earlier this week in unclear circumstances...
ReplyDeleteIn a statement, the military said the "Skylark" went down on Sunday and that the incident was being investigated. Tuesday's statement said there is "no risk of a breach of information."
Hezbollah's media arm published photographs of what it said was a drone it had shot down after infiltrating Syrian airspace in the Golan Heights.
Although Israel is not actively fighting in the Syrian civil war, it keeps close tabs on its enemies Iran and Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, which are both backing Syrian government forces.
Last week, Israel shot down a Syrian anti-aircraft missile fired at an Israeli aircraft carrying out an airstrike on a suspected Hezbollah weapons convoy in Syria.
AP
21/3/17