Illustrative image. (USAF Photo by Lawrence Crespo)
A Royal Air Force MQ-9B Protector that took off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus conducted a 13-hour sortie over Lebanon on April 9, according to open-source flight tracking data from Flightradar24 and other similar websites.
The unusual sortie came just a day after Israel carried out its largest wave of strikes against Lebanon without a warning. The Israeli military said that it hit 100 targets of Hezbollah in ten minutes. The strikes killed 303 people and wounded 1,150 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Most of the casualties were in fact civilians, including dozens of children.
More Israeli strikes hit Lebanon as the Protector was over the country, with casualties reported close to the city of Baalbek in the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel governorate, where the drone was operating.
MQ-9 drones are primarily used to collect intelligence, but have the ability to conduct pinpoint strikes. The British Protector version in particular can operate for more than 30 hours and reach altitudes of over 40,000 feet.
The exact mountainous area where tracking data shows the Protector circling for most of its sortie is to the northeast of Baalbek, right along the border with Syria.
Click to see full-size image. (Flightradar24/
Matt Kennard/X)
Click to see full-size image. (Flightradar24/
Matt Kennard/X)
Israel accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons from Syria on numerous occasions, even after the collapse of the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad, the group’s main ally there.
Just on April 5, the IDF threatened to target Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria, accusing the group of using it “for military purposes and smuggling of combat equipment”, though it ultimately did not carry out the strike at the request of the U.S.
Over the past year, British, American and even French MQ-9 drones were spotted flying over Lebanon. The nature of these operations remains unknown, and it is not even clear if they are being carried out with the approval of the Lebanese government.
One thing is sure and that is all three countries have strong intelligence cooperation with Israel. The United Kingdom in particular provided intelligence support for the Israeli military during the war on the Gaza Strip, although it claimed it was limited to locating hostages.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
starmer is one of the biggest joo coc*suckers on the planet. he has been in the pocket of the jooz for years.
so is your mother!
lebanon is almost as weak as bosnia!
british mission creep from this traitorous government.