Battle of the drones

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, Hezbollah dispatched to fly over southern Israel in October carried a couple of messages. First, it was intended to remind Lebanon and Israel that Hezbollah’s main focus remains the confrontation with the Jewish state and not the conflict in Syria. The drone’s flight occurred amid increased reports of Hezbollah’s alleged assistance to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, including sending fighters to Syria to fight the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and train the regular Syrian army in urban warfare. This assistance would contradict the Lebanese government’s policy of disassociation with the war in Syria, though Hezbollah is not the only Lebanese faction operating there — several hundred Sunni Lebanese have reportedly joined the FSA and there are logistical support networks for the Syrian rebels in parts of the northern Bekaa and Akkar regions of Lebanon. Still, amid such controversy, Hezbollah appears to