Hezbollah claims to find crashed Israeli drone

The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah claimed on Tuesday that it has captured the wreckage of an Israeli drone that crashed in southern Lebanon on Monday.

Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV station — which is closely affiliated with Hezbollah — reported that Hezbollah “fighters” found the drone and took it to a secure location for inspection.

The IDF confirmed Monday that the Skylark unmanned aerial vehicle crashed on the Lebanese side of the Israel-Lebanon border. An army spokesman said it was not known what caused the surveillance drone to crash.

The drone belongs to the Artillery Corps and was performing a routine operational mission along the border when it crashed, according to the Hebrew news website Ynet.

The IDF was said to be working to recover the UAV on Monday, but refused to comment on any attempts to retrieve it, while Lebanese media reported that both the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon were working to locate the wreckage.

https://twitter.com/LebanonNews360/status/821321091788378114

According to Al-Manar, the search efforts were initially hindered by rocky and rugged terrain.

Other media outlets associated with the Shiite group reported that the drone fell in the area of Labbouneh, north of the Israeli town of Shlomi, although the Al-Manar report said that it crashed near the town of Aalma el Chaeb, which is somewhat further from the border.

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The Skylark drone, or “sky rider” as it’s known in Hebrew, is a tactical surveillance drone created by Elbit Systems and operated by the IDF’s Artillery Corps. The miniature UAV can be launched by one or two people, depending on the model, and once airborne provides a live video feed to soldiers on the ground.

In August 2015, Hamas claimed to have rebuilt a Skylark 1 model from the wreckage of a crashed drone.