United Nations (UN) peacekeepers serving in the Golan Heights saw drones flying before an Israeli airstrike on Syria that killed an Iranian general, a UN spokesman said Monday, according to AFP.
Six Hezbollah terrorists were killed in the raid near Quneitra on the Syria-controlled side of the Golan Heights, including Jihad Mughniyeh, the head of Hezbollah’s Golan Heights operations.
An Israeli security source told AFP that an Israeli helicopter carried out the strike but the UN account raised the possibility that drones may have been used.
UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN observer force in the Golan on Sunday "observed two unmanned aerial vehicles flying from the Alpha (Israeli) side and crossing the ceasefire line."
"An hour later, smoke was observed coming from the general direction of position 30," Haq told reporters.
UN peacekeepers then saw the drones flying over the area of "position 30" and again crossing the ceasefire line, he added.
"The incident is a violation of the 1974 agreement on disengagement" between Israel and Syria, he charged.
Following the airstrike, the Lebanese-based Hezbollah threatened Israel with retaliation -- but noted that it would be limited.
"The attack on six Hezbollah members will be answered with a painful and unexpected response, but it can be assumed that it will be controlled so as not to drag into a wide-spread war," Hezbollah sources were quoted as saying in their affiliated Lebanese newspaper As-Safir.