Tue, Dec 16, 2008
Hamas Tried Similar Scheme Four Years Ago
Cheap, crude, "improvised explosive
devices" are one of the big innovations to come of age in the war
against terrorism. Now, model aircraft technology is apparently
providing would-be terrorists with a airborne equivalent to
IEDs.
Isreal's Haaretz daily newspaper reports the arrests of two
young men who are charged with attempting to use a model aircraft
as an improvised unmanned aerial vehicle in a planned attack on an
Israeli army base, near their home in the East Jerusalem
neighborhood of Isawiyah.
An indictment in Jerusalem District Court alleges Iyad Abid and
Abdullah Abid, ages 20 and 21, were testing a model airplane when
it crashed on the base. They're also accused of planning to drive a
tractor into an army jeep and abduct soldiers, both to steal their
weapons, and to hold their captives as hostages to bargain for the
release of members of Iyad's family who are serving life sentences
in Israel prison.
The investigation has also resulted in a number of charges not
directly related to an aerial attack plot. Police say the two had
accumulated bayonets, clubs, a stun-gun and a tear gas gun, and had
attempted to buy an M-16.
Additional charges include planning a Molotov cocktail attack on
soldiers near Isawiyah, and setting fire to the car of a man they
suspected of dealing drugs to a member of Abdullah's family. The
pair has also been accused of attempting to set fire to polling
stations during recent elections in Jerusalem.
There has been at least one previous case in which a model plane
is thought to have been obtained for use as a weapon.
Haaretz reports that four years ago, six members of the military
wing of Hamas died in an explosion while testing a motorized model
airplane. Hamas claimed Israeli officials had booby-trapped the
toy, but it's thought the explosion came while it was being rigged
with explosives for an attack.
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