• Chopper carrying Israel's Netanyahu lands after drone spotted off coast

    By Paul Goldman and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

    TEL AVIV, Israel - A helicopter carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly forced to land in the north of the country after an unmanned drone was spotted trying to infiltrate Israel's airspace.

    The prime minister's helicopter took off after the drone was shot down, according reports in Haaretz and Ynetnews. 

    "The (unmanned aerial vehicle) was tracked by IDF ground and aerial surveillance for the duration of its flight path as it attempted to approach Israel's coast," the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, said in a statement.  "Israel Air Force aircraft intercepted the UAV and successfully downed the target five nautical miles off the coast of the northern Israeli city of Haifa."

    The IDF declined to confirm Israeli media reports that Netanyahu's helicopter landed, but the prime minister did issue a statement shortly after news of the incident was released.

    "I view with utmost gravity this attempt to violate our border. We will continue to do everything necessary to safeguard the security of Israel's citizens," the prime minister said in a statement. 

    The incident was the second time in seven months that a drone had been intercepted in Israeli airspace, the IDF said. It did not say where the drone originated, but during the 2006 Israeli war with Lebanon, Israeli jets intercepted two drones launched by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant organization. 

    "UAVs pose a serious threat to the State of Israel's security. The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to violate Israel's sovereignty or harm its security," the IDF statement added. 

    The IDF said it was searching the area over which the drone was shot down on Thursday evening.

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  • Afghan villagers flee their homes, blame US drones

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Men peer through the former window of a destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, on March 19, 2013. Taliban militants attacked the nearby district headquarters in July 2011, then took refuge in the school. The Afghan National Army requested help from coalition forces, who responded with drones, fighter jets and rockets, leaving the school destroyed, according to village elders.

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Ahmed Shah, 12, center, recalls the attack on his village in the yard of a house where he and his family found refuge in the village of Khalis, Nangarhar province, on March 20, 2013.

    By Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Ghulam Rasool sits in the yard of his house in Khalis on March 20, 2013.

    Barely able to walk even with a cane, Ghulam Rasool says he padlocked his front door, handed over the keys and his three cows to a neighbor and fled his mountain home in the middle of the night to escape relentless airstrikes from U.S. drones targeting militants in a remote corner of Afghanistan.

    Rasool and other Afghan villagers have their own name for Predator drones. They call them benghai, which in the Pashto language means the "buzzing of flies." When they explain the noise, they scrunch their faces and try to make a sound that resembles an army of flies.

    "They are evil things that fly so high you don't see them but all the time you hear them," said Rasool, whose body is stooped and shrunken with age and his voice barely louder than a whisper. "Night and day we hear this sound and then the bombardment starts." Read the full story.

     

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Boys study in a makeshift school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013.

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Papers and schoolbooks lie among the debris of a destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013.

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Men walk through the debris of the destroyed school in the village of Budyali, Nangarhar province, on March 19, 2013.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Rahmat Gul / AP

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

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  • US surveillance drone approached by Iranian fighter jet, Pentagon says

    By Courtney Kube, Producer, NBC News

    An unmanned, unarmed U.S. surveillance drone was approached by an Iranian F-4 fighter jet on Tuesday, the Pentagon disclosed Thursday. The Iranian jet got as close as 16 miles.


    The drone, an MQ-1, was escorted by two U.S. military aircraft, Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement. “One of the U.S. aircraft discharged a flare as a warning to the Iranian plane, which then broke off pursuit,” the statement said.

    The American jets and surveillance plane were over international waters “at all times, it said.

    In November, two Iranian jets fired 30-millimeter cannons at an unarmed U.S. military Predator drone conducting surveillance in the Arabian Gulf. The jets “fired to take it down,” Little said at the time. The drone was not struck and returned to base safely. Following the incident, the U.S. said its military would continue surveillance flights over international waters of the Arabian Gulf.

  • 7 killed in US drone strike in Pakistani Taliban stronghold

    By Mushtaq Yusufzai, Producer, NBC News

    PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Seven people were killed and six others injured in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region on Friday evening, Pakistani security officials said.

    The officials and tribal sources said the drone fired six missiles and pounded two separate mud-built houses in the Babar area of the Ladha subdivision in the South Waziristan tribal region.

    Security officials said the area was mostly controlled by the militants and it was believed those killed and injured were militants.

    There was no immediate information about the identity of the victims, but Pakistani security officials said those killed were tribal militants affiliated with militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, led by Hakimullah Mahsud.

    Tribal sources said the Babar area in South Waziristan was considered the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.

    They said the majority of the local population had fled their homes and villages in October 2009 after Pakistani security forces launched military operation against the militants there.

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  • Iran releases video allegedly captured by crashed US spy drone

    Video released by Iran allegedly showing decoded data from the US RQ-170 spy drone that crashed in Iran in December 2011.

    By Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press

    Published at 10:17 a.m. ET: TEHRAN -- Iran's state TV has broadcast footage allegedly extracted from the advanced CIA spy drone captured in 2011, the latest in a flurry of moves from Iranian authorities meant to underline the nation's purported military and technological advances.

    Iran has long claimed it managed to reverse-engineer the RQ-170 Sentinel, seized in December 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace from the country's eastern border with Afghanistan, and that it is capable of launching its own production line for the unmanned aircraft.

    After initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed the Sentinel had been monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.

    The video aired late Wednesday on Iranian TV shows an aerial view of an airport and a city, said to be a U.S. drone base and Kandahar, Afghanistan. The TV also showed images purported to be the Sentinel landing at a base in eastern Iran, but it was unclear if that footage meant to depict the moment of the drone's seizure.

    In addition, the TV also showed images of an Iranian helicopter transporting the drone, as well as its disassembled parts being carried on a trailer.

    Iranian Revolutionary Guard via EPA, file

    Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, right, looks at the US RQ-170 drone which reportedly crashed in eastern Iran near the city of Kashmar on Dec. 4, 2011, displayed at an undisclosed location in Iran.

    In another part of the video, the chief of the Revolutionary Guard's airspace division, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said that only after capturing the drone, Iran realized it "belongs to the CIA."

    "We were able to definitively access the data of the drone, once we brought it down," said Hajizadeh.

    He described the Sentinel's capture as a huge scoop for Iran, saying that at the time, Tehran did not rule out a possible punitive U.S. airstrike over the drone.

    Iranian officials have accused the U.S. of stepping up its espionage activities against Iran as part of intensified Western efforts to force Tehran to abandon its uranium enrichment program, a key aspect of its disputed nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran may be trying to develop atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

    In an attempt to embarrass Washington, Iran has claimed to have captured several American drones, most recently in December, when Tehran said it seized a Boeing-designed ScanEagle drone — a less sophisticated aircraft — after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf.

    U.S. officials said there was no evidence that the latest claims were true.

    Also Thursday, the semi-official Fars news agency published photos reportedly depicting a domestic production line of ScanEagle drones. The photos show several drones in a workshop.

    Iran has said before that it's making ScanEagle copies and putting them into service, but it has not offered proof of those claims.

    Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

    At schools, in shops and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

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    Fars also quoted deputy defense minister Mohammad Eslami as saying that Iran has also established a "production line for the drones in foreign countries." He did not elaborate, and it was not clear if he was referring to Syria or Lebanon's Hezbollah group, Iran's top regional allies.

    The latest Sentinel footage came as the U.S. tightened sanctions to pressure the Iranian government to limit its nuclear program and restrictions on institutions that Washington says are stifling political dissent and censoring speech.

    Among the expanded measures announced Monday by the Treasury Department is a move to deny Iran access to revenue garnered from its oil exports. Under the latest sanctions, Iran would be able to use revenue from its oil sales only in a country that purchased its crude — now mostly big Asian economies such as China and India — which would significantly limit its access to the money.

    Related:

    US sources: Downed CIA drone made previous trips over Iran

    Analysis: Israel airstrike may foreshadow Iran attack

    Drone that crashed in Iran risks secret US technology

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Yemen official: Key al-Qaida figure dies following US drone strike

    AP

    Saeed al-Shihri, deputy leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in a photo from undated video posted on a militant-leaning Web site in January 2009, and provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

    By Ahmed al Haj, The Associated Press

    SANAA, Yemen — Al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen died in a U.S. drone attack last year in southern Yemen, the country's official news agency and a security official said Thursday.

    Saeed al-Shihri, a Saudi national who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, was wounded in a missile attack in the southern city of Saada on Oct. 28, according to SABA news agency.

    The agency said that he had fallen into a coma since then. It was not clear when he actually died.

    A security official said that the missile had been fired by a U.S.-operated, unmanned drone aircraft. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

    Yemen had previously announced al-Shihri's death in a Sept. 10 drone attack in the province of Hadramawt. A subsequent DNA test however proved that the body recovered was not that of al-Shihri.

    On Oct. 22, al-Shihri denied his own death in audio message posted on Jihadi websites.

    Also known by the nom de guerre Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, he denounced at the time the Yemeni government for spreading the "rumor about my death ... as though the killing of the mujahideen (holy warriors) by America is a victory to Islam and Muslims."

    Al-Shihri went through Saudi Arabia's famous "rehabilitation" institutes after he returned to his home country, but then he fled to Yemen and became deputy to Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of an al-Qaida group.

    Slideshow: Life goes on in Guantanamo

    John Moore / Getty Images

    President Obama's one-year deadline to close the facility has long passed as shutting it down has proven complicated and controversial.

    Launch slideshow

    Al-Shihri's death is considered a major blow to al-Qaida's Yemen branch, known as al-Qaida in The Arabian Peninsula. Washington considers it the most dangerous of the group's offshoots.

    Al-Qaida in Yemen has been linked to several attempted attacks on U.S. targets, including the foiled Christmas Day 2009 bombing of an airliner over Detroit and explosives-laden parcels intercepted aboard cargo flights last year.

    In 2011, a high-profile U.S. drone strike killed U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been linked to the planning and execution of several attacks targeting U.S. and Western interests, including the attempt to down a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009 and the plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010.

    Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, has fallen into lawlessness since the start of an uprising in 2011, when millions of Yemenis took to the streets demanding the ouster of their longtime authoritarian ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh.

    Al-Qaida militants exploited the unrest and took control of large swaths of land in the south until last spring, when the military, backed by the U.S., managed to drive hundreds of militants out of major cities and towns.

    Since then, the group has carried out deadly attacks targeting mostly security and military officials, including suicide bombings that targeted military and security compounds.

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  • US drone strikes kill 18 Pakistani militants, sources tell NBC

    By Mushtaq Yusufzai, NBC News

    Updated at 10:09 a.m. ET: PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Eighteen suspected militants were killed in three separate American drone attacks in Pakistan's South Waziristan on Saturday night, military and government sources told NBC News. 

    Pakistani military officials said the drones fired 10 missiles and pounded three different militant compounds in the Babar district. Eighteen people died in the drone attacks, said the officials, who asked not to be named because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

    Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

    Launch slideshow

    The militants targeted were led by Hakimullah Mehsud and had set up sanctuaries in the mountainous district, about 85 miles northeast of Wana, the capital of the South Waziristan tribal region. Mehsud's fighters often target the Pakistani army. 

    The death toll could rise as dozens of militants were present in the compound during the drone strikes, NBC sources said. 

    Tribesmen in the adjoining Razmak area of the North Waziristan region told NBC News that they had heard heavy blasts overnight but could not confirm if the explosions were drone strikes.

    Islamabad opposes the use of U.S. drones in its territory, but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in past. The drone campaign also infuriates many Pakistanis who see them as a violation of their country's sovereignty. Many Pakistanis complain that innocent civilians have also been killed, something the U.S. rejects. 


    Pakistani security forces conducted a massive military operation against the militants in South Waziristan in October 2009 but spared the area targeted in the overnight attack.

    An A to Z guide to the Islamic Republic of 'Banistan'

    A top Pakistani Taliban commander, Maulvi Nazeer, was killed in a drone attack on Wednesday, along with his senior commanders and fighters in South Waziristan.

    He was considered pro-government because he and his men had signed a peace accord and pledged not to fight against Pakistani forces. He was affiliated with the Afghan Taliban and fought U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

    On Saturday, an estimated 6,000 tribesmen demonstrated in Azam Warsak, which is about 10 miles from Wana, to protest the killing of Nazeer.  They pledged to continue fighting alongside the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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  • Navy officials poke holes in Iran's drone story

    By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent

    A drone Iran claims to have captured from the United States “appears to have been fished out of the sea,” and “not ours” according to U.S. Navy and defense officials, casting doubt on Iran’s version of events.  While it appears that the ScanEagle drone may have gone down in the Persian Gulf, military officials are confident it is not a U.S. drone.

    Navy officials also note that the serial number on the drone is covered with black tape in the video released by Iran, preventing them from tracking it. If the serial number were visible, the U.S. military or the manufacturer, Boeing Co., could tell exactly where the drone originated.

    The drone shown in the video is a ScanEagle model, but those are not unique to the United States. Boeing sells ScanEagles to at least nine different nations and private business such as oil companies operating in the Persian Gulf. 

    Defense officials describe the ScanEagles as being at the “low end of drone and surveillance technology,” which would provide the Iranians nothing new in technological or weapons development no matter whose drone it is.  The surveillance apparatus consists only of a camera and transmitter.  There is no video, data or intelligence stored on the drone itself.

    All officials spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity.

    The Boeing ScanEagle is four feet long and has a 10-foot wingspan, according to the company's website. They are used for surveillance only.

    The comments from U.S. officials came a day after Iran's semi-official Fars and the state-run URNA news agencies reported that a U.S. ScanEagle was gathering information over Gulf waters when it was captured by a naval unit of the Revolutionary Guards. 

    On Tuesday, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain denied Iran's report.

    "The U.S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region. Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognized water and air space," the spokesman said. "We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently." 

    Last month, the U.S. said Iranian warplanes shot at a U.S. surveillance drone flying in international airspace. Iran said the aircraft had entered its airspace.

    Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images, file

    A ScanEagle, an autonomous aircraft system, is seen in St. Inigoes, Md., in August 2009.

  • US denies loss of drone after Iran claims it captured one

    Iran's state TV reports that an unmanned American drone was captured over the Persian Gulf but did not give details of exactly when or where it happened. A spokesman for the U.S. Navy says no drones are missing in the area. TODAY's Tamron Hall reports.


    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 5:35 a.m. ET: The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that it had not lost any drones over the Persian Gulf recently after Iran claimed to have captured one in its airspace.

    The semi-official Fars and the state-run IRNA news agencies reported that a U.S. ScanEagle drone was gathering information over Gulf waters and had entered Iranian airspace.

    The agencies said the drone was then captured by a naval unit of the Revolutionary Guards force.

    However a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain denied the claim.

    "The U.S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region. Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognized water and air space," the spokesman said. "We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently." 

    Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Insitu's ScanEagle, an autonomous aircraft system, launches during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) demonstration day at Naval Air Station Pax River Webster Field Annex in St. Inigoes, Md., on Aug. 10, 2009.

    Last month the U.S. said Iranian warplanes shot at a U.S. surveillance drone flying in international airspace. Iran said the aircraft had entered its airspace.

    The ScanEagle is manufactured by Boeing Co. According to the firm's website, the drone is four feet long and has a 10-foot wingspan.

    NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports Dec. 5, 2011, on the American stealth drone that crashed in Iran and whether it is giving the Iranians access to a wealth of U.S. technology.

    The Fars report, citing a senior naval officer, said Iran's forces had "full intelligence supremacy over the moves of the foreign forces in the Persian Gulf."

    In April, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, claimed that his government was copying an American spy drone captured by Iran's armed forces last year.

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    Hajizadeh was quoted as saying that Iranian experts were recovering information from the RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December last year in eastern Iran, al Arabiya News reported.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Iran launches massive military exercise, state media reports

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    DUBAI - Iran launched large-scale air defense drills in the country's eastern half on Monday, Iranian media reported, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over a military incident in the Gulf reported last week.

    The "Velayat-4" maneuvers being held this week will span a massive stretch in Iran's northeast, east, and southeast regions - about half its total land mass. The area is not far from its borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, where there are large concentrations of U.S. troops.

    The week-long maneuvers will include about 8,000 troops, drawn both from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its regular military, several media outlets said.

    "Various kinds of fixed, mobile, and tactical long-range radars, and fixed, tactical and airborne electronic surveillance systems will participate in this exercise," said Farzad Esmaili, who heads Iran's air defense headquarters, according to state news agency IRNA.

    Iranian jets attack US military drone, Pentagon officials say


    The exercise will also test Iran's bombers, refueling planes, and unmanned aircraft, Esmaili said.

    The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) said on Monday that F-4, F-5, F-7, and F-14 fighters will participate in the exercise.

    Missile and artillery systems will also be tested, Shahrokh Shahram, spokesman for the drills, told IRNA on Sunday, and the drills will focus on improving coordination between Iran's military and the Revolutionary Guards, a powerful domestic and international actor separate from the regular military.

    Last week, the U.S. Pentagon said Iranian warplanes opened fire on an unarmed U.S. drone over international waters on November 1.

    Iran said it had repelled an aircraft violating its airspace.

    Iran fired on a U.S. drone during its classified surveillance mission on Nov. 1, but the Pentagon did not disclose the incident until Nov. 8 -- perhaps giving warning to Iran that the U.S. could respond militarily, and that Iran's nuclear program will be a high priority for President Obama. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    The incident underlined the risk of escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran in an ongoing dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.

    Although the Iranian air drills come just days after the Pentagon's announcement, the exercises appear to have been planned well in advance. In September, Esmaili told ISNA that Iran was planning a large-scale air defense drill in the coming months.

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    On Sunday, Revolutionary Guards commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh said Iran believed the U.S. drone was gathering intelligence on oil tankers off its shores, according to the Mehr news agency.

    Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Guards, said his forces had acted well in repelling the drone.

    "Iran's air defense systems and [Revolutionary Guard] fighter jets did their job and forced the aircraft out of Iran's skies," Jafari said on Sunday, according to Iran's English-language Press TV. "If such intrusions take place in the future, we will protect our airspace."

    Washington, the EU and other bodies have imposed sanctions on Iran's oil trade to press it to halt nuclear research the West fears is aimed at developing the capability to build a nuclear bomb.

    The Iranian economy is in free fall, with its currency, the rial hitting a record low. NBC's Ali Arouzi reports.

    Iranian missiles hitting Afghan soil, official says

    The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran, if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.

    Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear work is purely for peaceful purposes. Iranian officials have threatened to strike U.S. military bases in the region and target Israel if its nuclear sites are attacked.

    Secret war against Iran and its allies heats up

    Iran has carried out a number of military simulations this year, including the "Great Prophet 7" missile exercises in July.

    In August, Iran announced that it had tested a short-range missile with a new guidance system capable of striking land and sea targets.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Hezbollah admits launching drone over Israel

    Reuters TV

    A still image taken from Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) video footage shows what they say is a small unidentified aircraft shot down in a mid-air interception after it crossed into southern Israel on Oct. 6, 2012.

    By NBC News wire services

    The leader of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group has claimed responsibility for launching the drone aircraft that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week.

    The rare admission Thursday by Hassan Nasrallah raises regional tensions at a sensitive time when the group's backers, Syria and Iran, are under pressure.

    Israel shoots down unidentified drone

    Earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah of launching the drone.

    The unmanned aircraft was shot down by Israel, but the infiltration marked a rare breach of Israel's airspace. Hezbollah had been the leading suspect because of its arsenal of sophisticated Iranian weapons and a history of trying to deploy similar aircraft.

    Freedom fighters to some, terrorists to others, NBC's Jim Maceda takes an inside look at Hezbollah: The Party of God.

    Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the drone was Iranian-made and went down near the Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert, after flying some 25 miles into Israel.

    "The drone flew over sensitive installations inside southern Palestine," he said in a televised speech.

    Hezbollah does not recognize Israel.

    "Today we are uncovering a small part of our capabilities, and we shall keep many more hidden," Nasrallah added. "It is our natural right to send other reconnaissance flights inside occupied Palestine ... This is not the first time and will not be the last. We can reach any place we want" inside Israel, he said.

    With a formidable arsenal that rivals that of the Lebanese army, Hezbollah is already under pressure in Lebanon from rivals who accuse it of putting Lebanon at risk of getting sucked into regional turmoil. Confirmation that Hezbollah was behind the drone could produce further internal strain as it pursues its longstanding conflict with Israel.

    Israel routinely sends F-16s over Lebanon, breaking the sound barrier over Beirut and other places as a show of strength.

    Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite group committed to Israel's destruction, has long served as an Iranian proxy along Israel's northern border. The two sides fought a brutal monthlong war in mid-2006. Hundreds of people were killed, and Hezbollah fired several thousand rockets and missiles into Israel before the conflict ended in a stalemate.

    Hezbollah has attempted to send unmanned aircraft into Israel on several occasions, dating back to 2004. Nasrallah has claimed that the group's pilotless aircraft were capable of carrying explosives and striking deep into Israel.

    The last known attempt by Hezbollah to use a drone took place during the 2006 war, when Israel shot down an Iranian-made pilotless aircraft that entered its airspace.

    Since the fighting ended, the sides have been locked in a covert battle against one another.

    Touring southern Israel on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised efforts to prevent land infiltrations from Egypt. He mentioned that Israel has been equally successful "in the air, just like we thwarted the Hezbollah attempt last weekend," his first public statement blaming Hezbollah.

    Israel says the drone was not carrying explosives and appeared to be on a reconnaissance mission.

    During the televised speech, Nasrallah denied sending fighters into Syria to help Hezbollah's ally President Bashar Assad to quell the rebellion in Syria.

    "We did not fight alongside the regime until now. The regime did not ask us to do so and also who says that doing so is in Lebanon's interest?" Nasrallah said.

    Hezbollah's opponents have accused it of sending fighters into Syria. Last month, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Nasrallah for helping Assad crush anti-government protests, as well as two other members for the group's "terrorist activities" in general.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Israel shoots down unidentified drone

    Israeli officials says a drone missile they shot down may have been saying on crucial sites. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

    JERUSALEM — The Israeli air force shot down a drone after it crossed into southern Israel on Saturday, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from.


    The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean in the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich.

     It was kept under surveillance and followed by Israeli air force jets before it was shot down above a forest in an unpopulated area near the border with the occupied West Bank.

    Leibovich said it was shot down at about 10 a.m. (3 a.m. ET), after it travelled east some 55 kilometers (35 miles) across Israel's southern Negev desert.

    Defense Minister Ehud Barak praised the interception as "sharp and effective."

    "We view with great severity the attempt to compromise Israeli air space and will consider our response in due course,"Barak said in a statement.

    Soldiers, assisted by helicopters, were searching the area for the remains of the drone, which security sources said most likely did not originate from the Gaza Strip.

    Israel's Army Radio reported the drone was not carrying any explosives.

    Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah," referring to the Lebanese Shi'ite group that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

    Defense officials would not confirm Hezbollah's connection to the drone.

    On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has launched a drone into Israel. And in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.

    The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was Saturday's mid-air interception. In the video, a small, unidentified aircraft is seen moments before being destroyed by a missile fired from a fighter jet.

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