Israeli officials said the Iranian drone that they shot down appeared to have been developed from technology taken from a US stealth aircraft that was captured by Tehran in 2011, US daily, the Washington Post reported.
On Saturday, an Israeli Apache helicopter intercepted an Iranian UAV that was launched from Syria.
A spokesman for Israel’s military and a minister in Israel’s security cabinet told the Washington Post that the craft was a copy of a US RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone.
However, Iran has described the Israeli claim as “ridiculous.”
The incident led to cross-border confrontations with extensive bombing of Syria by Israel.
The US drone captured by Iran in 2011 was used by the CIA in an espionage campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, the report said.
The US later requested that Iran return the drone, However Iran’s response was that the US should instead apologize for invading its airspace.
