TEHRAN (FNA)- An Israeli Hermes drone crashed in the vicinity of Baghdad Airport on Wednesday, the second such loss in less than three days after another Israeli pilotless drone of the same model was shot down by Iranian troops in the Central parts of the country.
The Arabic-language Al-Mayadin TV channel reported minutes ago that an Israeli drone crashed near Baghdad Airport, adding that the unmanned aircraft was a Hermes Model.

The TV channel said the cause of the crash is still unclear and Iraq's Army has refrained from speaking to the media about the event.

FNA correspondent in Baghdad reported that the US embassy security staff have rushed to the crash site and collected the debris and the remains of the downed Israeli drone.

This is the third drone loss by the Israeli army in the last one month. The first drone was shot down by Palestinians in Gaza a few weeks ago.



A former Pentagon official said the Israeli army has been alarmed after the Wednesday downing of its pilotless plane and "put on hold all Hermes missions in regions where Iran or its allied forces are present".

Iran's ally, the Hezbollah Movement, has shot down several Israeli drones in Southern Lebanon in the last few years.

The former US military official, who asked to remain unnamed, reminded that Iran's forces or its technology and weapons systems are present in several countries across the region, and the repeated downing of the same model of drones has now become meaningful to Israeli army analysts.

"Following the IDF decision, all Hermes missions will be halted in skies over Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestinian territories and Lebanon," he told FNA Wednesday night.

On Sunday, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced in a statement that it had shot down a similar Israeli drone near the highly sensitive nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz in Central Iran.

The IRGC Public Relations Department said in the statement that the Israeli pilotless aircraft was a radar-evading, stealth drone with the mission to spy on Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment plant.

The IRGC also pointed out in its statement that the Israeli hostile aircraft had been targeted by a surface-to-air missile.

The IRGC has warned that it "reserves the right of response and retaliation for itself".

A few hours later on Sunday, Director of the IRGC's Public Relations Department General Ramezan Sharif told FNA that some of the parts of the downed aircraft are working, "and our experts are studying the information and intelligence of these parts".

"We are now analyzing the information of this plane," he added.

Then, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced on Monday that "the downed spy drone is Hermes and made in Israel".

He said the operational range of Hermes drones is 800 kilometers, adding that the aircraft can fly 1,600 kilometers by refueling once.

The General said parts of the aircraft have burnt out after it was targeted by the ground-to-air missiles of the IRGC Aerospace Force and after its fuel tank blast, yet "some parts of this drone are intact and we are now analyzing the information and intel of these parts".

Elaborating on the details of the down Israeli aircraft, the commander further stated that the drone, which is 5.5 meters wide in wings, is equipped with two cameras which can take high-quality photos.

"There was no prior information available about the aircraft and the only one of this type had been downed in Syria, but this one is more advanced," General Hajizadeh said.

The Elbit Systems Hermes 450 is an Israeli medium size multi-payload UAV, designed for tactical long endurance missions.

It has a flight endurance of over 20 hours, with a primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance and communications relay.

Also on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham strongly condemned Israel's hostile move as a violation of Iran's territorial integrity and sovereignty, and said "We...pursue the issue at legal and international bodies... within the framework of international regulations."

But, senior Generals in Tehran warned on Tuesday that Iran would not give a diplomatic response to the violation of its airspace by the Israeli spy drone which was shot downed near Natanz nuclear site a few days ago, and said Tel Aviv should wait for Iran's retaliatory moves in battlefield.

"Our response to this aggression will not be diplomatic, we will retaliate in the battlefield, but will not necessarily announce it. The enemy will see and understand it," IRGC Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, addressing a ceremony to honor the memory of martyred Basij (volunteer) forces in Tehran.

"We never step back (in the confrontation) against the enemy. The Islamic Republic is powerful and is capable of confronting any power at any level and we never bring down the level of our goals," he added.

Salami said although the shooting down of the Israeli spy drone seems to be only one of the few cases tactically, it sent a powerful strategic message to the enemy in the field of defense.

Later on Tuesday, Salami announced that Iran knows well from which country and which base the Israeli drone that it shot down a few days ago had taken off.

"What some people say that the drone had started its flight from Israel is not correct and we are almost certain about its origin, yet we would like to reserve judgment at present," Salami told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.

He further pointed out that the drone had been traced as soon as it cross Iran's borders, but "it was allowed to enter the country to see the intention (of the hostile forces operating it) and then we targeted and hit it at the right time".

Asked if Iran would reverse engineer the aircraft to start its production, Salami said that Iran doesn�t need to do so "although we have the power to do so", implying that technology of the Israeli drone, which was a Hermes model, does not have anything new to Iran.

A day later on Wednesday, a higher ranking Iranian commander said that downing the Israeli hostile drone was just the beginning of Iran's retaliatory moves and Tel Aviv should wait for Tehran's tougher responses, adding that the drone had started its mission from a country North of Iran.

"The destruction of the spy drone is not the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran's (retaliatory) action as we will give our (main) response to the enemy in the occupied territories," Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri told FNA on Wednesday.

He further expressed regret that a regional country North of Iran has collaborated with Israel and served as a launch-pad for the mission, and said, "We are waiting for that country which has cooperated with the Quds Occupying Regime (Israel) to send the drone to Iran to make up for its wrong deed; otherwise, we will declare its name."

Jazzayeri said that the drone had taken off from a former Soviet republic in the North of Iran.

Gen. Hajizadeh as well as Basij Commander Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi have underlined that Iran would speed up arming the West Bank in retaliation to the Israeli aggression, although they have warned that this would not be Iran's only response.

Later on Wednesday, Naqdi announced that arming the Palestinian resistance groups in the West bank had already started.

"Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region," Naqdi told FNA on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of a forum of Basiji university professors in Tehran today.

He underlined that arming the West Bank will lead to the annihilation of the Zionist regime.

Stressing the need for Israel to return the Palestinian lands to their real owners, Naqdi said, "The Zionists should know that the next war won't be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back."

He also revealed that many of the equipment and possibilities used by the Palestinians in their recent defense against Israel were the products of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and added that Tehran has also trained them on how to use such technologies to defend themselves.

By Fars News Agency

 

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