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Hezbollah says drone claims are a trap

BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 1 (UPI) -- There's nothing to support Israeli claims that it shot down a drone from Lebanese paramilitary forces, the Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said.

The Israeli military last week suggested it shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle dispatched from Lebanese territory by Hezbollah. An Israeli military spokesman was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying an F-16 fighter jet destroyed the drone after it was seen flying south along the Lebanese coast toward Israel.

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Nasrallah said in a nationally televised speech his forces had nothing to do with the latest incident, The Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon reports.

Hezbollah has both political and armed military wings. Nasrallah raised the possibility that some "non-friendly" state other than Israel sent the drone to drag "Israel and Hezbollah into a confrontation."

Israel and Hezbollah went to war briefly in 2006.

The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon is investigating the drone incident. The Lebanese newspaper reports UNIFIL is frustrated with Hezbollah's operations in southern Lebanon, saying Hezbollah fighters are interfering with peacekeeping operations.

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