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.

FMI: www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas.htm