Haifa—According to JNS,  “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used F-16s and Israel Air Force helicopters to shoot down a drone approaching the coast of the northern city of Haifa from Lebanon. The Hezbollah terrorist organization is suspected of sending the drone. After shooting the drone down at about 6,000 feet, the IDF navy searched for its wreckage in the water.

The IDF said in a statement: “Shortly after 1 p.m. a drone was identified as it was flying north to south along the Lebanese coastline. The air defense system tracked it for (several) minutes while it was still in Lebanese territory, and it was under surveillance throughout its flight until the interception. IAF planes were scrambled, as were combat helicopters, after it was determined that the aircraft was not friendly, and certainly not (an Israeli) aircraft. The Air Force commander authorized the interception.”

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told Army Radio, “We’re talking about another attempt by Hezbollah to send an unmanned drone into Israeli territory.” The IDF, however, has not yet confirmed Hezbollah’s involvement.

The drone appeared just days after Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met “secretly” with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to discuss the ongoing Syrian crisis. The Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Rai, reported that Nasrallah also met with elite al-Quds Forces leader Qassem Suleimani. They said the two discussed an “Iranian-Syrian defense system” in the case Syrian rebels gain more control with the support of the U.S., France and some Arab countries. An expert in Iranian affairs told the news service Al Arabiya that such “secret” meetings were routine.

In addition, Patriots Billboard reports that the U.S. Treasury has alleged Hezbollah traffics Iranian money through the U.S.to fund violence and undermine American interests. Treasury has also used the Patriot Act to blacklist two Lebanese money-exchange houses for moving hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money and used cars through the U.S. and Africa. They add that Lebanon has turned into a “veritable money laundering machine.” Patriots Billboard reports further that economic experts claim the extremists are willing to endanger Lebanon’s entire financial system in order to promote terror and radical Islam and note that Hezbollah is “not an indigenous Lebanese group promoting Lebanese interests… [it is] an Iranian proxy willing to sacrifice Lebanese stability and prosperity at Tehran’s behest.”

From combined services