Report: Dahiyeh Drone Attack Targeted Iranian Guided-Missile Technology

A suspected Israeli drone attack on a Hizbullah site in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted “crates believed to contain machinery to mix high-grade propellant for precision guided missiles,” Britain’s The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday, quoting unnamed Western intelligence sources.

Hizbullah said overnight that a drone that crashed in its southern Beirut suburbs stronghold at the weekend contained an explosive device weighing more than five kilograms.

The Iran-backed group had previously said an Israeli reconnaissance drone had flown over the southern suburbs before crashing, and that a second armed drone had then "hit a specific area" before dawn on Sunday.

But after the party's "experts dismantled the first drone that crashed in Beirut's southern suburbs, it was found that it contained a sealed explosive device" of around 5.5 kilograms, it said in a statement.

"We confirm that the purpose of this first drone was not reconnaissance but the carrying out of a bombing attack," it added.

The latest discovery, Hizbullah said, confirms that Sunday's drone attack involved not one but two explosive-rigged drones -- one which exploded and the other that did not because of a technical failure.

The incident marked the first such "hostile action" in Lebanon since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, the party's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday, vowing retaliation.

Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his country was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts."