Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon on Sunday denounced Israel's "aggression" after the fall of two drones in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah, and warned that this incident, virtually unheard of in recent years, could further increase regional tensions.

The incident occurred before dawn, hours after Israel announced strikes in neighboring Syria to prevent, according to the Jewish state, an Iranian force to launch an attack using explosive drones.

Considered by Israel and the United States as a "terrorist organization", Hezbollah is a major political player in Lebanon, where it is represented in the government and parliament. It is also a military force that intervenes for years in the Syrian conflict, in support of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In recent months, the Shiite movement and Israeli officials, whose last open conflict dates back to 2006, have multiplied the declarations of war. The Jewish state regularly bombs Syria against Hezbollah and its allies, Iran and Assad's power.

This time, the face-to-face overflowed in Lebanon itself.

"Two drones belonging to the Israeli enemy violated Lebanese airspace (...) over the southern suburbs of Beirut, the first of which fell and the second exploded into the air causing material damage." announced the Lebanese army in a statement.

Hezbollah had previously claimed that the explosion of the second drone had hit one of its media centers.

"The second (drone), loaded with explosives, detonated, causing significant damage" in the center, assured the national agency (ANI) a spokesman for Hezbollah, Mohamed Afif.

The army said "to have cordoned off the area", and announced that the military police were conducting the investigation.

An AFP correspondent heard a big explosion before dawn. A few tens of meters from the media center, he saw the Lebanese security forces deploy. Hezbollah security services were also present.

- "Regional stability threatened" -

President Michel Aoun denounced an attack on "stability and peace in Lebanon and in the region".

This "new aggression" is "an attempt to push the situation towards more tension," lashed Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a rival of Hezbollah on the Lebanese political scene.

Hariri denounced "a violation of UN resolution 1701" that ended the bloody 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

The 33 days of war, in the middle of the summer, had made 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, and 160 on the Israeli side.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who warns Israel against attacks and threatens to retaliate, must speak during the day.

Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army refused to comment.

In recent years, hostility between Israel and Hezbollah has mostly occurred in Syria, torn apart since 2011 by a deadly war. Late Saturday night, Israeli warplanes again conducted strikes in that country.

- Drones "kamikazes" -

The Syrian air defense has come into action to counter "Israeli missiles" targeting the area around Damascus, said a military source quoted by the official Sana news agency. She assured that most had been shot before reaching their targets.

For its part, the Israeli army announced that it had struck to prevent "an Iranian attempt by al-Quds (the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards) to launch an attack from Syria against targets in northern Israel with killer drones ".

"The threat was significant," Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters, holding Iran and Damascus responsible for the attack.

He also noted that while Iranian forces launched rockets and missiles against Israel three times in 2018, the use of "kamikaze" drones was a new tactic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed "major operational action". "Iran has no immunity," he said. "Our forces operate in any sector against the Iranian aggression".

The Israeli raid took place in Aqraba, southeast of Damascus, according to the Israeli military spokesman, and targeted "several terrorist targets and military installations belonging to the al-Quds force as well as Shiite militias".

Two Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian were killed in the strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has an extensive network of sources in the country.

Quoted by the Iranian agency Ilna, a senior Iranian official however denied that positions of the Quds Force were affected.

"This is not true," said Mohsen Rezaie, former top Qods force official now Secretary of the Discernment Council, a body overseeing the Iranian political system.

burx-jjm-lar / tgg / gk

© 2019 AFP