Hezbollah vows reprisal for drone strike

Iran-backed militants claim Israeli aircraft attacked a stronghold in Lebanon

BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah said Sunday that his group will confront and shoot down any Israeli drones that enter Lebanese airspace from now on.

Hassan Nasrallah also vowed to retaliate against an Israeli airstrike inside Syria that had taken place hours earlier, which he said killed two Hezbollah members.

Nasrallah’s speech came after a drone crashed into a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut, landing on the roof of a building that houses Hezbollah’s media office. Another drone exploded and crashed in a plot behind the building, causing material damage, authorities said. The drones are believed to be Israeli.

A Hezbollah spokesman said earlier Sunday that the group did not fire on any of the drones. He said the second drone was likely armed, judging by the damage it caused.

Nasrallah said one of the drones had been flying low among buildings, calling it a military “suicide mission” and “a clear aggression.”

He said allowing Israel to keep flying drones over Lebanon would lead to a similar situation as in Iraq, where a series of attacks targeting military bases and weapons depots belonging to Iranian-backed militias has left the country on edge. U.S. officials say at least one of the attacks was carried out by Israel.

In Saturday’s strikes near the Syrian capital, Israel publicly stated it was thwarting an imminent drone strike against Israel by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.

But Nasrallah said the strikes actually hit a Hezbollah rest house, marking a rare acknowledgement of member deaths in Syria by Israeli strikes.

“I tell Israeli soldiers on the border [with Lebanon] to be cautious and wait. Maybe in a day or two or three or four … do not think for a moment that Hezbollah will allow such matters to pass,” he added.

The downed drones and cross-border airstrikes come amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, which backs Hezbollah.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the drone incident or Hezbollah’s remarks.

Israel’s late-night airstrike Saturday in Syria, which triggered Syrian anti-aircraft fire, appeared to be one of the most intense attacks by Israeli forces in several years.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, working with allied Shiite militias, had been planning to send a number of explosives-laden attack drones into Israel.

Conricus said Israel had monitored the plot for several months and on Thursday prevented Iran from making an “advanced attempt” to execute the same plan. Then, Iran tried again late Saturday to carry out the same attack, he said.

He declined to give specifics on what targets the Iranians intended to strike.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, reported that two Hezbollah members and an Iranian militiaman were killed in the Israeli attack Saturday night.

But a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, said the Israeli strikes in Syria did not cause any damage or casualties among Iranian forces there, and “the defenders of Syria and Iraq will soon give an answer” to recent attacks by Israel and the United States.