Iran helps their terrorists in Lebanon with drones to attack israel

Satellite images show Hezbollah airstrip for Iranian drones in northern Lebanon

Hezbollah has used drones in Lebanon since 2004 and has sent many into Israel

Mahmoud Zayyat (AFP/File)"A boy dressed in military fatigue looks at a portrait of the head of Lebanon's militant Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, during a parade in the Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on November 7, 2014"

Lebanon's militant Shia group, Hezbllah, has built an airstrip in the country's northern Bekaa Valley for its fleet of Iranian-built drones, reported IHS Jane's Defense Weekly on Friday.

The defense journal, analyzing recent satellite images, concluded that the airstrip, which is only 10 kilometers from the Lebanese city of Hermel, 18 kilometers from the Syrian border, was built between 2013 and 2014.

The report stated that the size of the airstrip, only 0.67 kilometers long, while too small for ordinary aircraft or cargo planes used to smuggle weapons into Syria, is long enough for an unmanned drone, including the Ababil-3 which the report states is in use by the group. The report also states the possibility of the larger Shahed-129 drone, which has a range of up to 1,700 kilometers using the strip.

The satellite images also showed an antenna on a hill south of the strip which could potentially be used to extend the range of the unmanned aircraft by ground control. Two buildings 2.5 kilometers west of the airstrip were also seen in the satellite images, which are large enough to house drones used by the group, the report added.

Hezbollah recently used drones to attack enemy positions in Syria.

"Iran's Ababil-3 drone"

In September Hezbollah drones targeted command centers belonging to the al-Nusra Front, an Islamist Syrian rebel faction affiliated with al-Qaida, on the outskirts of the Northeastern town of Arsal in Syria.

The US Army reported in early April that Iran is working on a fleet of "suicide kamikaze drones", and that it is also imparting technical knowledge on their production to Hezbollah.

The report was published by the Army's Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and was cited by American daily The Washington Times.

"Whereas a decade ago Iran’s UAVs and drones were largely for show, a platform with little if any capability," the report reads, "the Iranian military today boasts widespread use of drones, employed not only by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but also by the regular army, both regular and IRGC navy, and the regular and IRGC air forces."

"In a mid-February speech, (Iranian) General Abdolrahim Moussavi outlined the army’s growing use of drones, with emphasis on suicide or kamikaze drones," the report noted, "While it is easy to dismiss the idea of a suicide drone as more symbolic than real in an age of cruise missiles and precise Predators, utilizing suicide drones is an asymmetric strategy which both allows Iran to compete on an uneven playing field and poses a risk by allowing operators to pick and choose targets of opportunity over a drone’s multi-hour flight duration."

Hezbollah has used drones in Lebanon since 2004 and has sent numerous drones into Israel.