Iraq’s popular forces reported that they have brought down a hostile surveillance aircraft over Southeastern Fallujah in Anbar Province.
They said that the wreckage of the ISIL’s spy drone carried ‘Israel-Made’ labels.
No further detail has yet been released on the incident.
This was not the first Israeli-made drone downed in Iraq.
In August an Israeli Hermes drone was shot down in the vicinity of Baghdad Airport, 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-Mayadeen TV channel reported that an Israeli drone crashed near Baghdad Airport, adding that the unmanned aircraft was a Hermes Model.
FNA correspondent in Baghdad reported that the US embassy security staff rushed to the crash site and collected the debris and the remains of the downed Israeli drone.
This was the third drone loss by the Israeli army in one month. The first drone was shot down by Palestinians in Gaza a few weeks earlier.
Iran’s ally, the Hezbollah Movement, has shot down several Israeli drones in Southern Lebanon in the last few years.A former US military official, who asked to remain unnamed, said 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 became 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 in August.
A few days earlier in August, 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.
Then in December 2015, Syria intercepted an Israeli spy drone in the province of Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“The drone was on a spying mission above the town of Hadar when it was shot down,” the Syrian television said.
The Syrian military sources noted that the Israeli drone was a Skylark I.
Quneitra has seen heavy fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels including al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the latter’s nearly four-year war on terrorist groups.
Skylark I is a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Israel’s Elbit Systems Company.
