Jerusalem: The Israeli military Saturday confirmed that one of its surveillance drones crashed in southern Lebanon due to a technical malfunction.
The miniature drone was on a routine patrol along the Israel-Lebanon border where it experienced a technical malfunction and fell into the Lebanese side, Xinhua quoted an Israeli military spokeswoman as saying.
Earlier in the day, Lebanese media said an Israeli drone crashed inside southern Lebanese Marjayoun area, 15 km from the border with Israel.
A Lebanese military official told a local daily that the Israeli army conducts routine espionage sorties over southern Lebanon.
The official, however, refused to explain the type of the crashed drone and if efforts were made to recover it.
Israeli daily Ha’aretz, however, identified the drone as a Skylark, an unmanned drone for short-range missions used by the army’s artillery corps.
In February, Lebanese media reported 11 Israeli soldiers crossed the border fence into Lebanese territory to collect the remains of a drone which had allegedly crashed along the border due to bad weather.