UPDATE - Hezbollah says downed Israeli drone in S. Lebanon

UPDATES WITH ISRAELI REMARKS

By Wasim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanon's Hezbollah announced Monday morning that it shot down an Israeli drone in the southern border area.

"The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance confronted with the appropriate weapons an Israeli drone while crossing the Palestinian-Lebanese border, towards the southern Ramyeh village," Hezbollah said in a statement.

"The drone was shot down, and it passed to the hands of the resistance," the group added.

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) cited an unnamed spokesman for the Israeli army as confirming the crash of an unmanned aircraft in Lebanese territory.

"There is no fear of leakage of classified information," IPBC quoted the army spokesman who also said that the drone was not one of the advanced unmanned aircraft Israel used.

In late August, Hassan Nasrallah, chief of Hezbollah vowed to shoot down all Israel drones in retaliation to Israeli attacks on a number of the group's positions and its members in Syria and Lebanon.

On Aug. 25, an Israeli drone crashed in a southern suburb of capital Beirut while another exploded midair.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat