Better A Drone To Be Downed Verses A Manned Aircraft! Drones Are Much Easier To Replace!

Report: Syria Downs Israeli Drone Over Golan Heights (PHOTOS)

By Lea Speyer December 22, 2014 , 10:15 am

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“For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.” (Psalm 91:3)

The Hermes 450 is a medium size UAV typically used by the IDF that provides real time intelligence to ground forces. (Photo: Elbit via Tsahi Ben-Ami / Flash 90)

Arab media reported Sunday night that Syria “brought down” an Israeli drone near the Golan Heights town of Quneitra.

The state-run SANA News Agency said that the unmanned aerial vehicle was on a reconnaissance mission over the border town, flying just over the Syrian side of the border.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television stated an “unmanned aircraft of the Zionist regime was downed near the skies of Quneitra, close to the border.”

The report indicated that the model of the drone was a Skylark I. It is not clear whether the drone crashed or was brought down.

The IDF said that it was “unaware of any unmanned aircraft that was shot down in the Golan.”

 

Quneitra has been the site of intense fighting between Syrian rebels and forces loyal to the Assad regime. Located in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, UN peacekeeping troops were forced to evacuate their posts as fighting turned deadly.

In several instances since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, missile and weapons fire have spilled into Israeli territory. In August, the IDF shot down a Syrian drone using a Patriot missile that strayed into Israeli airspace.

Arab media reported an Israeli drone was shot down over the Golan Heights, December 21, 2014. (Photo: Screenshot)

Arab media reported an Israeli drone was shot down over the Golan Heights, December 21, 2014. (Photo: Screenshot)

Arab media reported an Israeli drone was shot down over the Golan Heights, December 21, 2014. (Photo: Screenshot)

Earlier this month, foreign media reported an Israeli airstrike against government targets in Syria. Arab media claimed that at least eight warplanes belonging to the Israeli Air Force carried out strikes outside Damascus, close to the international airport.

The reported target was a warehouse containing new Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles that were being transported to Lebanon into the hands of Hezbollah.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/26156/report-syria-downs-israeli-drone-golan-heights-photos/#JPIFmQpgDRcKKKdw.99

Will Israel Be Pulled Into The ISIS Crisis? Rebels Now Control Syrian Border.

Majority of Israel-Syria Border Under Rebel Control

By Lea Speyer September 14, 2014 , 11:15 am

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“The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)

Militants stand next to vehicles carrying dozens of held Fijian U.N. peacekeepers before their release, near a U.N. base in Syria September 11, 2014, 45 UN Fijian peacekeepers that was kidnapped by the Islamist rebels two weeks ago. (Photo: Flash90)

Syrian rebels are said to be in control of almost the entire Syrian border with Israel, a monitoring group and the Al-Arabiya news network reported on Saturday.

According to the report, which was quoted by Israel’s Channel 10, Islamist rebel forces took control of two additional villages near Quneitra on Friday. The Syrian army is said to be hanging on to only one village in the war-torn area.

Quneitra, the single border crossing between Israel and Syria, was seized several weeks ago by al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nursa Front rebels as they fight for control of southern Syria.

The report said that the towns of Rawadi and Hamidiyah were relinquished to rebel forces after intense fighting with the Syrian army who is loyal to President Bashar Assad.

“The regime is on the retreat before the advancing rebels,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. “The regime has now lost control of about 80 percent of towns and villages in Quneitra province.”

As infighting rages in Syria, the civil war has spilled over into Israel over the last several weeks. On Friday, a mortar shell exploded on Israel’s side of the Golan Heights. The IDF believes that the mortar as a stray from the fighting across the border.

Last week, several mortars exploded in open areas in the Golan Heights. The IDF responded by firing a Tamuz missile at the origin of the rocket fire, which the army confirmed was a successful strike.

Israel Radio reported that UN peacekeepers were evacuating from Camp Faouar, their main headquarters in Syria, to Israel so that it would not fall into the hands of Syrian rebels. The IDF has opened a special border crossing for the UN troops and a small Fijian force is expected to remain behind at the base for a few days.

The IDF has closed off Israel’s northern border with Syria and has declared the area a closed military zone.

Quneitra Will Be Focus Of Syrian Troops Against Nusra

Syria forces ranged for major counteroffensive to dislodge rebels from Quneitra. High tension on Golan

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 3, 2014, 11:06 PM (IDT)

Tags:  Golan,  Syrian war,  ISIS,  Nusra Front,  Israel,

Syrian soldiers

The Syrian army was poised Wednesday, Sept. 3 for an all-out offensive in the coming hours to take out the rebels holding parts of the Golan town of Quneitra and the crossing into Israel, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The concentration of Syrian troops at a staging point is clearly visible from Israeli military positions and villages on the Golan.

The assault force consists of a large number of troops from the Syrian army’s 7th Division with many tanks, which the Syrians have been wary hitherto of moving into the battle zone, after being cautioned by Israel via the UN that they would be infringing ceasefire agreements with Israel and risk incurring IDF counteraction.

However, high authority in Damascus appears to be counting on the revulsion and shock,  generated around the world by the beheading by ISIS of the American-Jewish journalist Steven Sotloff, deterring Israel from intervening against Syrian forces which are fighting another Al Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front.
All in all, say DEBKA’s sources, the decision to embark on a large-scale assault on rebel gains in the Golan means that military priorities have been reshuffled at the highest level of Syrian policy-making. After treating the Golan and Quneitra front as a strategic backwater hitherto, they suddenly occupy center stage in Damascus as a key arena for vanquishing rebel forces.

Israel’s Golan forces and population are in a state of preparedness. Tensions rose palpably Wednesday, when Syrian fighter-bombers flew over Quneitra and dropped Iranian-made barrel-bombs on rebel positions. They acted in defiance of Israel’s threat to send its air force against Syrian jets intruding in the Golan no-flight zone.

This threat followed the first Syria air strike over Quneitra on Aug. 28, against which Israel refrained from interfering. But Damascus was obviously not deterred from launching another air strike over the Golan to support its coming offensive.

Wednesday night, the Security Council called on all UN members who had any influence with Nusra al-Jabha to intercede for the release of the 44 UN Fijian observers the Islamist group is holding hostage since last week. The same resolution also ordered Nusra to immediately return the weapons and vehicles, some of them armored, they had seized from the UN Disengagement and Observer Force.
With the Syrian sword about to fall on their heads, it is doubtful that the Syrian Islamists will heed either of those calls.

Syrian Drone Shot Down

IAF Shoots Down Drone Infiltrating from Syria

By Lea Speyer August 31, 2014 , 3:12 pm

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“Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!” (Psalm 122:7)

Two UAV’s (Unmaned Aerial Vehicles), the close one is Hermes 450 and the far is a Heron, displayed during a ceremony for the new ranks acquired by the graduates of Flight Course in the IAF. June 28 2010. (Photo: Ofer Zidon/Flash90)

The Israeli Air Force shot down a drone that was attempting to infiltrate Israeli airspace from Syria on Sunday afternoon.

The IAF fired surface-to-air Patriot missiles to intercept the drone.

The drone is believed to have come from the Quneitra area in Syria, which is located next to the border with Israel.

“The IDF will not tolerate a breach of the state of Israel’s sovereignty,” the IDF said in a statement.

Over the last several days, the Quneitra region has seen intense fighting between Islamist rebels and members of the Syrian army over control of the area.

Rebels associated with al-Qaeda’s Al-Nursa Front terror organization seized control of Syria’s only border crossing with Israel and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s last stronghold in southern Syria.

The interception of the drone on Sunday comes after several reports of Israeli drones being shot down across the Middle East last week. Hamas claimed to have shot down a drone in Gaza and Iran said it intercepted an Israeli drone over its Natanz nuclear site.

On Thursday, Arab media reported that an Israeli spy drone had been shot down near the Baghdad airport in Iraq. The US Embassy in Iraq is said to have ordered its forces on the ground to recover the drone.