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Iran using drones to spy on Israel

TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- An Iranian lawmaker said a drone operated by Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah transmitted pictures from restricted Israeli areas near a nuclear site.

Esmail Kosari, a member of an Iranian national security committee, said a drone launched by Hezbollah in early October was able to get close to the Dimona nuclear facility in Israel before it was shot down. The drone, he said, transmitted photos of "sensitive bases" inside Israeli territory.

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"These aircraft transmit their photos ... and now we have photos of restricted areas," he was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr News Agency as saying.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah took responsibility for the drone, saying it was a display of his movement's arsenal.

Israeli officials downplayed the significance of the Hezbollah drones, through an Iranian commander said there were more advanced drones in the country's arsenal.

In April, Iran said it was able to reverse engineer a U.S. drone downed over Iranian territory.

In December 2010, the Iranian military said it retrieved an RQ-170 drone that had been flying under the authority of the CIA. It was reported that a remote U.S. pilot lost control of the vehicle near the Afghan border.

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