IDF: Downed Iranian drone was armed to attack Israel

IDF intelligence revealed that an intercepted Iranian drone was carrying explosives when it infiltrated Israeli airspace earlier this year. 

By: TPS

An Iranian drone that penetrated Israeli airspace in early February was armed with an explosive device and its operators had planned to carry out an attack inside Israel, the IDF said Friday night.

“After flight path analysis and an operational and intelligence-based investigation of the Iranian UAV that infiltrated Israeli airspace on February 10, 2018, the IDF concluded that the Iranian UAV was armed with explosives and was tasked to attack Israel,” an IDF spokesman said.

“By intercepting the Iranian UAV, IAF combat helicopters prevented the attack Iran had hoped to carry out in Israel. The UAV was identified and tracked by Israeli defense systems until its destruction, effectively eliminating any threat the Iranian UAV posed,” the spokesman added.

In response to the penetration of the drone, Israeli fighter planes conducted the largest strike on Syria since the first Lebanon War, hitting a mobile Iranian control center that sent the drone into Israeli airspace and then striking 12 targets in the country after Syrian Army air-defenses shot down an Israeli F-16I jet as it returned to Israel following the initial strike.