DAMASCUS, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Syria said Tuesday it shot down an Israeli drone in the southern province of Quneitra, but Israeli military cited technical malfunction for the crash.
The drone, identified as Skylark, was shot down by the machine guns of the Syrian army over the village of Hader in the northern countryside of Quneitra, the War Media of the Syrian army reported.
However, Israeli military said Tuesday that an Israeli drone crashed in southern Syria, apparently due to malfunction.
The Skylark, a mini unmanned vehicle, crashed near the Druze village of Hader, a military spokesperson said in a statement.
"The crash apparently occurred because of a technical malfunction," the spokesperson added.
Israel uses the Skylarks, its smallest drones, for surveillance missions. In 2017, the military temporarily grounded its Skylark fleet after at least five drones crashed in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Lebanon during the same year.
This incident came amid heightened tensions in southern Syria after the Russia-Israel talks on the situation there reportedly failed.
The talks discussed reportedly the withdrawal of Iranian forces and allied fighters from areas in southern Syria, where the rebels planned to evacuate their positions for the Syrian army to fill in.
On Sunday, Israel attacked the positions of pro-government Shiite fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border, killing over 40 of them.
Earlier in the day, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper reported that the Syrian army is sending reinforcements to Quneitra and the nearby Daraa province as a prelude to a wide-scale offensive against the foreign-backed rebels after the failure of the Russia-Israel talks.
