Israel says it had attacked Iranian targets in Syria to foil an imminent attack by what it called Iranian “killer drones” on Israel.
Despite Iranian denials of the attack, the incident has sparked new tensions between Israel and Iran. Israel ordered deployment of its Iron Dome missile to its border with Syria.
It is rare that Israel takes responsibility for air strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, although Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of these attacks over the past few years. But this time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit in a tweet that praised the army’s major operational effort and said that Iran had planned to send killer drones with explosives into Israel. He warned Iran that it had “no immunity anywhere.”
The Israeli army said that four Iranian operatives had recently arrived in Syria to pilot so called Kamikaze drones, each armed with explosives.
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Meanwhile, Hezbollah says two Israeli drones have crashed in Lebanon overnight.
The second drone fell on a building that houses Hezbollah’s media center in the Dahyeh suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
“We did not shoot down or explode any of the drones,” Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif told the Associated Press.
Israel has not commented on the drone strike.