Iran says it has built new drone

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's defense minister says Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets.

The semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday quoted Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the new aircraft — dubbed Epic, or Hemaseh in Farsi — can fly at high altitudes.

He did not elaborate on its capabilities.

In recent years, Iran has been pursuing a drone program alongside its military program, which has aimed to produce missiles, jet fighters, destroyers, light submarines and torpedoes.

Iran claims it has captured an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone and at least three ScanEagle aircraft in recent months.

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Israel says it shoots down Hezbollah drone

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it has shot down an unmanned aircraft sent by the Hezbollah group into Israeli skies.

Military officials said the aircraft was downed Thursday off the Israeli coast in Israeli airspace near the northern city of Haifa.

It is the second known instance in which the Lebanese militant group, a bitter Israeli enemy, has sent a drone into Israeli airspace. Last October, the Israeli air force shot down an unmanned aircraft in a similar incident.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighboring Syria to obtain what he calls game-changing weapons.

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Israel shoots down drone, Hezbollah suspected

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached its northern coast from neighboring Lebanon, raising suspicions that the Hezbollah militant group was behind the infiltration attempt.

Hezbollah denied involvement, but the incident was likely to heighten Israeli concerns that the Shiite militant group is trying to take advantage of the unrest in neighboring Syria to strengthen its capabilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in a helicopter in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed it with "utmost gravity."

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the unmanned aircraft was detected as it was flying over Lebanon and tracked as it approached Israeli airspace.

He said the military waited for the aircraft to enter Israeli airspace, confirmed it was "enemy," and then an F-16 warplane shot it down, smashing its wreckage into the sea about five miles (eight kilometers) off the northern port of Haifa. Lerner said Israeli naval forces were searching for the remains of the aircraft.

He said it still was not clear who sent the drone, noting it flew over Lebanese airspace, but that it could have originated from somewhere else.

Other military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to the media, said they believed it was an Iranian-manufactured aircraft sent by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group sent a drone into Israeli airspace last October that Israel also shot down.

Officials said Netanyahu was informed of the unfolding incident as he was flying north for a cultural event with members of the country's Druse minority. They said his helicopter briefly landed while the drone was intercepted then continued on its way.

"On my way here in the helicopter, I was told that there is an infiltration attempt of a drone inside the skies of Israel," Netanyahu said in the northern Arab-Israeli town of Daliyat al-Karmel. "We will continue to do everything necessary to safeguard the security of Israel's citizens."

Despite the denial, the incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.

A senior Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Lebanon had no information on Thursday's incident.

When Israeli military shot down a Hezbollah drone on Oct. 6, it took days for Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to confirm it. He warned in a speech that it wouldn't be the last operation by the group. He said the sophisticated aircraft was made in Iran and assembled by Hezbollah.

Netanyahu repeatedly has warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighboring Syria, a key Hezbollah ally, to obtain what he calls game-changing weapons.

Israel has all but confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in Syria earlier this year that destroyed a shipment of sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah.

Israel's military has also stepped up its air surveillance over Lebanon. On Thursday morning, Israeli warplanes flew over the Christian town of Jezzine and the highlands of the Iqlim al-Tuffah province, a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, the country's state-run National News Agency reported.

The Lebanese army also reported Israeli jets violated Lebanese airspace on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Some analysts said Hezbollah might be trying to divert attention from its involvement in the increasingly sectarian Syrian civil war. The Shiite militants have openly sided with the regime of Bashar Assad in its battle against mostly Sunni rebels.

Jonathan Spyer, senior research fellow at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center near Tel Aviv, said Hezbollah was facing discontent among its Shiite base in Lebanon, and more broadly among other Arabs for its participation in the Syrian conflict.

He said the group was likely trying to show that its real enemy was the Jewish state, in an effort to shore up support.

Spyer said sending a drone appeared to be a "fairly calibrated provocation," intended to be low key enough not to provoke an Israeli military response in Lebanon.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of these kinds of incidents in the weeks and months ahead," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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Yemen: US drone strike kills 4 al-Qaida suspects

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Yemeni security official and witnesses say a U.S. drone strike killed at least four suspected al-Qaida militants in mountainous area south of the capital, Sanaa.

The four were killed while riding a vehicle in the desert area of Oussab al-Ali, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) south of Sanaa, the official said.

The region has become a hideout for al-Qaida militants since the Yemeni government intensified its offensive against their former strongholds in the south over the past several months.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

A witness in a nearby village said he saw columns of smoke rising into the sky after two explosions rocked the area on Wednesday.

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Yemen: US drone strikes kill 4 al-Qaida suspects

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Two U.S. drone strikes Wednesday killed at least four suspected al-Qaida militants and destroyed the house of another in a mountainous area south of the capital, Sanaa, a Yemeni security official and witnesses said.

The four were killed in the first strike while riding a vehicle in the desert area of Oussab al-Ali, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) south of Sanaa, the official said.

The second strike targeted the house of a suspected jihadi, Hamed Radman, believed to be al-Qaida member, the official said. He said it was not known whether Radman was inside the house at the time.

A witness in a nearby village said he saw columns of smoke rising into the sky after two explosions rocked the area. He said that U.S. drones have been flying over his village for three days and are still in the sky.

The region, shaped like a triangle and located in the middle of three provinces of central Damar, southern Ibb and eastern Hodeida, has become a hideout for al-Qaida militants since the Yemeni government intensified its offensive against their former strongholds in the south over the past several months.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

In Sanaa, Yemeni authorities have raided houses of suspected al-Qaida members in the past 48 hours, arresting more than 15, including a man whose brother was killed in one of the drone strikes in southern city of Abyan the past months, official said.

The arrests are part of tightening security measures in Sanaa in the vicinity of the foreign embassies, companies and hotels.

Yemen's al-Qaida branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is considered the group's most dangerous.

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As drone monopoly frays, Obama seeks global rules

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs.

The United States was the first to use unmanned aircraft fitted with missiles to kill militant suspects in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

But other countries are catching up. China's interest in unmanned aerial vehicles was displayed in November at an air show . According to state-run newspaper Global Times, China had considered conducting its first drone strike to kill a suspect in the 2011 murder of 13 Chinese sailors, but authorities decided they wanted the man alive so they could put him on trial.

"People say what's going to happen when the Chinese and the Russians get this technology? The president is well aware of those concerns and wants to set the standard for the international community on these tools," said Tommy Vietor, until earlier this month a White House spokesman.

As U.S. ground wars end - over in Iraq, drawing to a close in Afghanistan - surgical counterterrorism targeting has become "the new normal," Vietor said.

Amid a debate within the U.S. government, it is not yet clear what new standards governing targeted killings and drone strikes the White House will develop for U.S. operations or propose for global rules of the road.

Obama's new position is not without irony. The White House kept details of drone operations - which remain largely classified - out of public view for years when the U.S. monopoly was airtight.

That stance is just now beginning to change, in part under pressure from growing public and Congressional discomfort with the drone program. U.S. lawmakers have demanded to see White House legal justifications for targeting U.S. citizens abroad, and to know whether Obama thinks he has the authority to use drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil.

On Friday, a three-judge federal appeals court panel unanimously ruled that the CIA gave an inadequate response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking records about drone strikes. The CIA had said it could neither confirm nor deny whether it had drone records because of security concerns.

The judge who wrote the ruling noted that the president had publicly acknowledged that the United States uses drone strikes against al Qaeda.

LETHAL ACTION

Strikes by missile-armed Predator and Reaper drones against terrorism suspects overseas began under former President George W. Bush and were expanded by Obama.

The ramp-up started in 2008, the last year of Bush's term, when there were 35 air strikes in Pakistan, and escalated under Obama to a peak of 117 in 2010, according to The Long War Journal ( http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes.php ).

That jump in use of armed drones resulted from the authorization to use "signature" strikes, which allowed targeting terrorism suspects based on behavior and other characteristics without knowing their actual identity, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said the administration is committed to explaining to Congress and the public as much as possible about its drone policies, including how decisions to strike are made.

"We are constantly working to refine, clarify, and strengthen the process for considering terrorist targets for lethal action," Hayden said.

The administration recognizes "we are establishing standards other nations may follow," she said.

James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said other countries, including Russia, have unarmed reconnaissance drones. China says it has an armed drone, but "we don't know if it works," he said.

"Getting agreement on the applicability of existing humanitarian law to the new technologies is crucial," he said, because China and Russia do not endorse applying laws of armed conflict to new military technologies.

One of the Obama administration's goals is to "regularize" the drone program, making it more a part of accepted U.S. practice in the future, Lewis said. "This is going to be part of warfare."

While the Obama administration moves toward refinement and transparency of standards, drone strikes continue to spark outrage in countries where they are conducted. Washington has sought to portray civilian casualties from drone strikes as minimal, but groups collecting data on these attacks say they have killed hundreds of civilians.

A U.N. human rights investigator who is looking into drone strikes worldwide said on Friday the U.S. campaign had violated Pakistan's sovereignty.

INTERNAL DEBATES

One focus of U.S. officials' internal debate is whether to shift drone operations to the Pentagon from the CIA.

That would allow the CIA to return to more traditional operations of espionage and intelligence analysis, and put the killing of terrorism targets in the hands of the military.

It would probably be a "phased approach" that would account for differences in the threat and political sensitivities, said a second U.S. official. "There would have to be some tailoring."

In Pakistan, where the U.S. military is not in ground combat, the Obama administration would probably not want drone strikes to appear as being conducted by the military.

In Yemen, there may not be the same sensitivities. U.S. military personnel are on the ground working with Yemenis in counterterrorism operations.

The United States has also carried out drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Somalia.

"I think if they moved it, not as a covert action program, but one of the tools of the warfighter, then the result of it is probably going to be more public exposure about what they are doing," Stephen Hadley, national security adviser under Bush, said.

The "center of gravity" in internal administration debates is the goal of greater consistency on how drone strikes are managed, decided upon, and executed, the second official said.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Mohammad Zargham)

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U.S. drone strikes violate Pakistan's sovereignty: U.N.

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States has violated Pakistan's sovereignty and shattered tribal structures with unmanned drone strikes in its counterterrorism operations near the Afghan border, a U.N. human rights investigator said in a statement on Friday.

U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, visited Pakistan for three days this week as part of his investigation into the civilian impact of the use of drones and other forms of targeted killings.

"As a matter of international law, the U.S. drone campaign in Pakistan is ... being conducted without the consent of the elected representatives of the people, or the legitimate Government of the State," Emmerson said in a statement issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

"It involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent and is therefore a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," he said.

Emmerson said in January he would investigate 25 drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. He is expected to present his final report to the U.N. General Assembly in October.

Washington had little to say about Emmerson's statement.

"We've seen his press release. I'm obviously not going to speak about classified information here," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "We have a strong ongoing counterterrorism dialogue with Pakistan and that will continue."

Spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House would withhold judgment until it sees Emmerson's full report.

"We have a solid working relationship with them (Pakistan) on a range of issues, including a close cooperative security relationship, and we're in touch with them on a regular basis on those issues."

'END MILITARY INTERFERENCE'

Emmerson said the Pashtun tribes of northwestern Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, Pakistan's largely lawless region bordering Afghanistan, have been decimated by the counterterrorism operations.

"These proud and independent people have been self-governing for generations, and have a rich tribal history that has been too little understood in the West," he said. "Their tribal structures have been broken down by the military campaign in FATA and by the use of drones in particular."

The tribal areas have never been fully integrated into Pakistan's administrative, economic or judicial system. They are dominated by ethnic Pashtun tribes, some of which have sheltered and supported militants over decades of conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.

Clearing out militant border sanctuaries is seen by Washington as crucial to bringing stability to Afghanistan, particularly as the U.S.-led combat mission ends in 2014.

Most, but not all, attacks with unmanned aerial vehicles have been by the United States. Britain and Israel have also used them, and dozens of other countries are believed to possess the technology.

"It is time for the international community to heed the concerns of Pakistan, and give the next democratically elected government of Pakistan the space, support and assistance it needs to deliver a lasting peace on its own territory without forcible military interference by other states," Emmerson said.

The U.N. Human Rights Council asked Emmerson to start an investigation of the drone attacks following requests by countries including Pakistan, Russia and China.

Criticism of drone strikes centers on the number of civilians killed and the fact that they are launched across sovereign states' borders so frequently, far more than conventional attacks by piloted aircraft.

Retired U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, who devised the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, warned in January against overusing drones, which have provoked angry demonstrations in Pakistan.

Civilian casualties from drone strikes have angered local populations and created tension between the United States and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Washington has sought to portray civilian casualties as minimal, but groups collecting data on these attacks say they have killed hundreds of civilians.

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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