A new reason to fear IS: exploding drones

WASHINGTON: Militant groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State have learned how to weaponise surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new

WASHINGTON: Militant groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State have learned how to weaponise surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new twist to Syria’s civil war, a US military official and others say.

HT Image

A video belonging to an al-Qaeda offshoot, Jund al-Aqsa, purportedly shows a drone landing on Syrian military barracks. In another video, small explosives purportedly dropped by the Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah target the Sunni militant group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.

A US military official said the US military is aware of the development. Commanders have warned troops to take cover if they see what they might have once dismissed as a surveillance drone, he said.

The head of the Airwars project, which tracks the international air war in Iraq, Syria and Libya, said the weaponised drones are clumsy but will scare people. “There are a million ways you can weaponise drones — fire rockets, strap things in and crash them,” Chris Woods said. He added: “This is the stuff everyone has been terrified about for years, and now it’s a reality.”

The surveillance drones allowed Middle East militant groups and Syrian anti-government rebels and militia to collect data on enemy bases, battlefield positioning and weaponry and improve targeting.