(Daily Beast) Patrick Hilsman - Iran has been providing Syria's regime with drones - some of them inspired by American technology - and they're already playing a significant role in keeping Bashar Assad in power. "They've been seen on several airbases in satellite imagery, including Damascus, Hama and Shayrat airbases," said Varun Vira, an expert at c4ads, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that specializes in defense issues. The first evidence of Iranian drones in Syria appeared in early 2012, when opposition activists released video showing a Pahpad AB-3. Their presence was usually a good indicator of imminent shelling or airstrikes. In December 2013, the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra shot down a small Yasir drone and displayed the wreckage on social media. Iran claims to have developed the Yasir by reverse engineering American technology captured in 2012. Iran says they developed their own model based on captured American ScanEagle mini UAVs. Iran has armed drones in its own arsenal, but so far only unarmed drones have appeared in Syria and their main purpose appears to be reconnaissance.
2014-05-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive