BEIRUT: The head of Hezbollah boasted yesterday that his Shia group sent a sophisticated unmanned drone over Israel last week, saying the device was built by Iran. Hassan Nasrallah’s acknowledgement of the drone which Israel shot down on October 6 came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed at Hezbollah and vowed to defend his country against further “threats.”
“A sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft was sent from Lebanese territory ... and travelled hundreds of kilometres (miles) over the sea before crossing enemy lines and into occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said on television. “It overflew sensitive and important installations for dozens of kilometres until the enemy spotted it near (the nuclear site) Dimona,” Nasrallah added on Hezbollah’s television Al-Manar. He did not identify the installations.
Nasrallah insisted that “possession of such an aerial capacity is a first in the history of any resistance movement in Lebanon and the region.” “It’s not the first time (that a drone was sent) and it will not be the last. We can reach all the zones” of Israel, said Nasrallah, referring to a less sophisticated drone sent by Hezbollah during its 2006 war against Israel. AFP
