Hezbollah Information Commissioner Mohammad Afif on Sunday told the Lebanese News Agency that one of the drones that crashed in the Dahieh neighborhhod of Beirut was booby trapped.
התרסקות הרחפנים בלבנון | ערוץ לבנוני פרסם סרטון בו נראה הנזק במשרד התקשורת של חיזבאללה. לדברי כתבת הערוץ: הרחפן הראשון לא התפוצץ ולא ידוע מדוע התרסק, הרחפן השני נפל עשרים דקות אחרי והתלקח pic.twitter.com/Dcb58fiYKr
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
He said that the blast caused serious damage to the building where Hezbollah’s communications center is located. Three were lightly injured from the blast.
He also added that his organization had not downed the unmanned aerial vehicles, noting that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is planning to respond to these events in a pre-planned speech Sunday evening.
The Fars news agency reported that “Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah announced it has shot down two Israeli drones flying over areas near the capital, Beirut.”
The Associated Press quoted residents of the southern Beirut neighborhood reported one big explosion that shook the area early Sunday and started a fire. The same residents said the blast may have been caused by an Israeli drone that went down in the area, and was part of the Israeli attacks on neighboring Syria.
According to Or Heller of Channel 10, Israel believes the fallen drones were Iranian.
ההערכה בישראל: הרחפנים שנפלו לפנות בוקר בדאחייה בביירות הינם רחפנים איראנים.
— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller)
A few hours earlier, the IDF attacked targets near Damascus in a successful attempt to thwart an imminent Iranian drone strike on Israel (See: IAF Thwarts Iranian Attack of ‘Multiple Killer Drones’ from Syria).