Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Sunday that Iran has in its possession UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) which are far more advanced than the one which the Hezbollah recently sent into Israel.

“Definitely, the technology of the drone which recently flew into the ‘Quds occupier regime’ by the Lebanese resistance movement and amazed the enemies is not the newest Iranian technology,” Vahidi noted.

On October 6, a Hezbollah drone penetrated Israeli airspace and, according to the Iranian news agency Mehr, came “very close to the Dimona nuclear plant without being detected by advanced Israeli and U.S. radar systems.”

The IDF Spokesperson’s office reported at the time that the drone was seen on Israel’s radar the entire time, and the IAF was waiting for an opportunity to shoot it down where it won’t cause damage to people or property.

The Iranian defense minister said Israel had made a lot of publicity over its Iron Dome air defense shield but the infiltration of the drone into the country “proved scandalous for Tel Aviv.

Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on October 21 that “the UAV that recently was able to penetrate into the occupying regime frightened the Zionist regime.”

On Monday Mehr quoted Esmail Kowsari, chair of the Iranian parliament’s defense committee, who said that Iran holds pictures of Israeli bases and other restricted areas, transmitted from the drone launched into Israeli airspace.

“These aircraft transmit their pictures online, and right now we possess pictures of restricted areas,” Kowsari said.

Reuters commented that Iran’s military regularly announces defense and engineering developments, but some analysts are “skeptical of the reliability of such reports.”

The Pakistani Taliban caused widespread revulsion when it recently gunned down 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, whose “crime” was to ask for an education. Although assassinations and terrorism are common in Pakistan, what provoked such outcry is that Yousafzai was targeted because of her background as a campaigner for women’s rights.

Yousafzai lives in the Mingora area of Swat in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, where scores of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters have taken refuge. Yousafzai first captured their attention after launching a campaign against attempts by the Taliban to impose their version of Shariah law in the region, whereby men were forced to grow their beards and girls were prevented from attending school. She has campaigned against these demands since the age of 11.

For her efforts, Yousafzai was given a bravery award by Pakistani President Yousuf Raza Gilani last year. She was rightly celebrated and championed by politicians from across all sides of the political spectrum. Yet, not one of them ever bothered to question why a teenager needs to campaign for her right to an education. No one thought to question who would fear a small, young girl.

Herein lies the problem in Pakistan. The political class is simply unwilling to confront the Taliban which operates freely across much of the FATA region. Instead, they make political capital from criticising the drone program operated by the United States which targets terrorists in FATA. It is true that drones can sometimes be a blunt and clumsy tool, but in the absence of any will by Pakistani authorities to chase down the terrorists operating in FATA, this program is the only lifeline available to residents there who oppose the Taliban.

Two weeks ago the cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan, vowed to lead a “peace convoy” to Waziristan, another Taliban hotbed in FATA. Khan said he wanted protest drone strikes but, in the end, stopped short of entering FATA after the Taliban threatened to attack him. Without a hint of irony, Khan continued to blame the United States for the problems in Pakistan.

After the attempted assassination of Yousafzai, Khan was again directing his rage at America – rather than those who pulled the trigger. He told a press conference (available in Urdu here) that the Pakistani government has antagonised the Taliban by launching a crackdown in the tribal areas. Worse, he said that Taliban fighters who targeted coalition forces in Afghanistan are fighting a “legitimate jihad.”

The Afghan government reacted angrily to these comments, telling the Guardian:

Either [Imran Khan is] profoundly and dangerously ignorant about the reality in Afghanistan, or he has ill will against the Afghan people.

Our children are killed on daily basis, civilians killed, and our schools, hospitals and infrastructure attacked on a daily basis. To call any of that jihad is profoundly wrong and misguided.

Although Yousafzai was shot in the head she has survived the Taliban’s attempts to kill her, and is now in Britain where she is receiving special medical attention. Yet the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Ehsanullah Ehsan, has vowed to try again to kill her.

He has branded Yousafzai an “American spy,” who spread “Western ideas.” In a statement to the Pakistani press,Ehsan said:

She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her idol. She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas.

In a subsequent statement, he added:

In Islam and Pakhtun traditions there is absolutely no room for an attack on a woman of pure virtues. But in cases where a woman is seen as a clear sinner who stands in defiance of Shariah, such a woman is not only allowed to be attacked but there is an obligatory instruction for such an action.

She not only spied against Mujahideen but also created propaganda against them. The Gul Makai diary [an online diary Yousafzai wrote for the BBC about life under the Taliban] is an embodiment of anti-Taliban views. She has received the punishment for her sin.

The attack on Yousafzai perfectly encapsulates all that is wrong with Pakistan today. The Taliban arrogate for themselves the role of arbiters of public morality and conduct. They kill anyone who disagrees with them and are allowed to operate with impunity.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton watches a demonstration of drone capabilities by U.S. and Ugandan military representatives at Kasenyi Military Base in in Kampala, Uganda, last August.

The U.S. supplies drones and training to the Ugandan military, which they use in their hunt for Joseph Kony and members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a militant group operating in Uganda and other central African countries.

That’s so cool, the idea that a bunch of young adults in U.S. military bases around the world can apply their video game skills to taking out bad folks. It so stresses how huge the technological gap has become between Us and Them, that Us no longer need to show up to kill Them.

Back in 1945, the U.S. ultimately won the war because we were able to carpet bomb Germany. We all saw those films: the sky absolutely filled up with B17 bombers. Well, now we no longer have to risk the lives of crew members on those dangerous missions. They get to stay home and do it all from afar, while texting their friends and possibly even ordering pizza.

I’ve read the reports of Al Qaeda and Taliban who are afraid to leave the safety of their homes out in those exotic sounding regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Whereverstan – because as soon as they come out, say, to buy a pack of cigarettes at the local bodega, or just walk their goat, a satellite picks up their image and a drone driven by an American teenager with great eye-thumb coordination will surely kill them.

This is so Science Fiction, I can’t begin to tell you. I honestly feel that, starting on 9/11, 2001, we’ve all been transported in a Ray Bradbury alternate universe, where everything we knew is gone, replaced by a very different narrative.

And I’m strangely OK with this narrative, OK with our kids staying home to run our wars by remote control. Makes moms happier. Over on our side, of course.

A drone shot down by Israel over the Negev desert transmitted photos of preparations for a military drill between Israel and the United States, and of key weapons sites in Israel, a British newspaper reported.

The unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, was shot down by Israeli troops on Oct. 6, after entering Israeli airspace near the Mediterranean Sea.

The drone was launched from Lebanon, in a cooperation between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, the Sunday Times of London reported, citing unnamed sources.

Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech Oct. 11 admitted to sending the drone which was followed, then intercepted and shot down in an unpopulated area.

The admission came several hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying that Hezbollah was responsible for launching the drone.

“We are acting with determination to protect our borders, as we prevented last weekend an attempt by Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said, according to his office.

IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said the aircraft was identified before entering Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean and was downed in accordance with a decision of the IDF’s top leaders.

Nasrallah said the drone was Iranian made and “flew over sensitive installations” in Israel, according to Reuters.

The Times reported that the drone was the new Shahed-129, introduced in Iran in September, which Tehran says has a range of up to 1,200 miles, can stay aloft for 24 hours, and has fire power.

Hizbullah Chief Hassan Nasrallah will discuss rumors of a Lebanese drone over Israel in a televised appearance on Thursday, according to Lebanese daily Naharnet.

Nasrallah have a televised appearance on Thursday to discussed current issues on the Lebanese and regional scenes, including rumors of a Lebanese drone crossing into Israeli airspace.

A drone was shot down over Israeli airspace on Shabbat.  Military officials originally indicated that the aircraft may have been sent by Hizbullah.

Hizbullah radicals have been joining up with soldiers loyal to Syrian president Bashar Assad in a hot civil war which has claimed the lives of an estimated 32,000 people in the last year and a half.

With the military jumpy over the incursion of an enemy drone deep into Israeli airspace on Saturday, the IAF is taking no chances when they see something unusual on their radar screens, which are apparently now set at their highest sensitivity levels.

Around 5:00 AM on Wednesday morning, IAF fighter jets were scrambled over Ben Gurion Airport after IAF radar systems detected an unidentified flying object over the airport. All international flights were put on hold, and landing planes had to switch to a holding pattern as the fighter jets checked everything out.

Galei Tzahal reports that the all-clear was given a few minutes later and the planes were allowed to land.

There’s no report as to what the radar had detected.

This is the second time the IAF has scrambled fighter jets since Saturday. Earlier in week, they sent jets over Beit Shemesh, but that turned out to be nothing.

An IDF source is saying that the army would prefer to be more careful and not take extra chances.

Also, it turns out that Saturday’s F-16 had to launch two anti-aircraft missiles at the drone in order to shoot it down because of the drone’s low heat signature prevented a good lock the first time.

See: Related Cartoon

The official statement by the IDF is laconic:

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was identified penetrating Israeli airspace this morning, and was intercepted by the IAF at approximately 10:00 AM. IDF soldiers are currently searching the area where the drone was downed, in open areas in the northern Negev, to locate and identify the drone.

That’s the whole report.

News agencies add additional minor details but the large questions remain unanswered for the moment. China’s Xinhua news service says the unidentified drone flew over settlements and military bases in southern Israel briefly before being brought down by IDF fire over an open unpopulated area. It was spotted entering Israel’s airspace from the Mediterranean sea heading from the west to the east. But there is no word on where the UAV originated.

The Daily Mail‘s website, published in the UK says this is not the first incident in which Israel has shot down drones entering its airspace:

The Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has launched several such aircraft into Israel over the past few years. In the 2006 war, Hezbollah launched an Iranian-made drone capable of carrying explosives into Israel that was shot down. Another one launched two years earlier crashed in the Mediterranean.

The Mail also quotes the IDF’s military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, saying no one was injured in the process of bringing down this morning’s drone, and that Israeli ground systems alerted the air force to its presence, as a result of which IDF jets were given the order to scramble and intercept it. The Israeli air force “was in control throughout… We had monitoring contact from the ground and from the air.” She said the drone flew over the Gaza Strip but did not originate there and declined to give more details. But Israel media reports have suggested this was an intelligence gathering drone and was not carrying explosives.

Times of Israel publishes video footage of the IDF bringing down the drone, and says the army is considering “the possibility that it originated in Lebanon. Hezbollah has flown drones into Israeli airspace a few times in the past, though not for several years“.

Back in April 2012, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported that the terrorists of Lebanon’s Hezbollah have

been allocating increased resources towards bolstering its drone unit… The Shiite terror groups reportedly plans to use its unmanned aerial vehicle to attack Israel in case it mounts a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Hezbollah is equipped with Ababil (“Swallow”) drones, which are manufactured and provided by Iran.The Ababil has several models, including one that can carry a warhead packed with several dozens of kilograms of explosives. Defense establishment officials expressed concern that Hezbollah would be able to send multiple drones into Israel’s airspace and have them crash into targets in the country’s north. ”Hezbollah is making a specific effort to acquire such (weapons) as part of its offensive lineup against Israel,” a security source told Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Lebanon Daily Star reported that a Hezbollah drone crash-landed inside Lebanon in July. As far back as 2006, the IDF brought one of those Ababil drones down in the sea off the northern Israeli city of Akko [report].

A website called Arkenstone ["a comprehensive, open source, English-language database on the Iranian armed forces"] gives more background about Iranian drones. Keep in mind we still don’t know the source of today’s drone. And for the moment (it’s 7:45 pm Saturday night here in Jerusalem) there are no reports about this that we can see in the online Iranian media.

Finally, a reminder from the BBC World Service that

Iran has unveiled what it says is a new “indigenous” long-range unmanned drone capable of flying over most of the Middle East, state media report. The Shahed (Witness) 129 had a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles) and could be equipped with bombs and missiles, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said. It is reportedly capable of carrying out reconnaissance and combat missions.

There are certain to be more details in the coming hours.

Visit This Ongoing War.

Speculation and rumor are rife in Israel as the question is asked, “Whose drone was it?”

Part of what is driving the rumor mill is the minimally released information from the IDF, the very serious question of how the drone flew so long over Israel uncontested, and what appears to be a leaked IDF photo that censored some markings on the UAV which may have indicated who may have either built or sent it.

The mainstream explanation is that the drone was sent by Iran via Hezbollah in Lebanon to spy on Dimona or to test Israel’s defenses.

A former Lebanese general said on Iranian TV that the UAV was an American drone that may have lost its way.

One Israeli rumor-monger said the drone was American made, and of the kind that may have been sold to Egypt.

On  Sunday morning, the Lebanese TV channel “Al Meyadin’, which is associated with Hezbollah, claimed the UAV was launched and controlled by Hezbollah.

The IDF still hasn’t said if the drone was remote-controlled or using a pre-programmed path and a GPS.

But the IDF should know the answers to at least some of these important questions already, so once it decides to release the information to the public, at least some of the rumors will go away.

What follows next is a decision on how Israel will react to the enemy incursion, once the enemy is identified.