Posted on 08/25/2019 3:01:48 AM PDT by SkyPilot
* Drones were to attack northern Israel, military says
* Syrian army says it destroyed most of the Israeli missiles (Adds quotes by Israeli PM and military, background)
JERUSALEM/DAMASCUS, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft on Saturday struck Iranian forces near Damascus that had been planning to launch "killer drones" at targets in Israel, an Israeli military spokesman said.
"The strike targeted Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite militias which were preparing to advance attack plans targeting sites in Israel from within Syria over the last number of days," the military said in a statement.
The elite Quds Force is the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters the forces on Thursday had been preparing to launch "killer drones" armed with explosives at northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had thwarted the planned Iranian attack. "Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression," he said on Twitter.
Syrian state media said Syrian air defences intercepted "hostile targets" over Damascus, the capital, Saturday night.
Witnesses in Damascus said they heard and saw explosions in the sky.
"The aggression is ongoing and air defences are confronting hostile targets and are downing most of them in the southern region," state media outlet SANA said, indicating areas south of Damascus.
The Syrian army said in a statement that "the majority of the Israeli missiles were destroyed before reaching their targets." Conricus, however, said the impact of the Israeli strikes was "significant."
Israel says it has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against Iranian targets trying to establish a permanent military presence there and against advanced weapon shipments to Tehran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.trust.org ...
BB changed His Name to Tehran Tommy.
Capturing the RQ-170 drone required detailed knowledge of the aircrafts flight control system and also precise information about the times and locations along its flight path. They had to know ahead of time where it would be and when it would be there to pull of what they pulled off.
Definite treason on the part of person or persons within the Obama Administration. It is really difficult to over estimate the damage to national security that the loss of that aircraft caused our country.
Regardless of who was responsible, ultimate responsibility lies with Barak Obama because he refused to allow the military to destroy the aircraft once it was on the ground and Obama essentially handed the aircraft over to Iran ( and Russia and China too) pretty much intact
It has been reverse engineered by all three. The Iranian knock off is produced in both ISR and weapon carrying ( including nukes) stealth cruise missile versions
The Israelis visually observed one being launched into Israeli airspace and were able to intercept it.
It was not so easy to bring down, an Israeli jet had to close to such close quarters to get a lock on it that the pilot was lucky not to have had his own plane damaged and brought down the explosion and debris from the damaged aircraft.
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