Israel has long complained about the involvement of archenemy Iran, and Iranian proxy Hezbollah, in the Syria war. The Shiite allies have sent forces to back Syrian President Bashar Assad, who appears headed toward victory after years of fighting. Israel has said it will not accept a permanent military presence by Iran and its Shiite allies in Syria, especially near the Israeli border.

An Israeli fighter jet has crashed amid Syrian anti-aircraft fire after an offensive against Iranian targets in Syria, the Israeli military says. The two pilots ejected and parachuted to safety after the crash in northern Israel. They were taken to hospital. Israel said its aircraft, an F-16 jet, was carrying out strikes in response to the launch of an Iranian drone into Israel. Syria opened fire after an Israeli act of "aggression", state media said.

Israel's military says it has targeted what it calls Iranian sites within Syrian territory after intercepting an Iranian-made drone. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, Israeli military spokesman, said on Twitter on Saturday that the drone entered Israeli occupied Golan Heights. He also said one of Israeli fighter jets was shot down during their Syria operation, but the pilot ejected and landed safely. "IDF [Israel Defence Forces] has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the #UAV into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian Anti-Air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe," said Conricus.

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military says it has shot down an Iranian drone that infiltrated the country and has struck Iranian targets in Syria that launched it. The military says that as part of the unusual event early Saturday one of its F-16 jets crashed in northern Israel. The military says the pilots abandoned the aircraft and were safe. It says sirens sounded in northern Israel as a result of the anti-aircraft fire from Syria. Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Iran was "responsible for this severe violation of Israeli sovereignty."

"A combat helicopter successfully intercepted an Iranian UAV that was launched from Syria and infiltrated Israel. The aircraft was identified by the Aerial Defense Systems at an early phase and was under surveillance until the interception," the military said in a statement.

"A combat helicopter successfully intercepted an Iranian UAV that was launched from Syria and infiltrated Israel. The aircraft was identified by the Aerial Defense Systems at an early phase and was under surveillance until the interception," the military said in a statement.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. It's only February, and the most stupefyingly incredible display of autonomous robotics we'll see all year has almost certainly happened already: The center core didn't manage to make it back to the drone ship, but damn, that double landing of the boosters was epic, and that's not a word I use very often. Here's one more video of the boosters landing, which I think must have been taken from the top of a launch tower at KSC.

Relations between Washington and Islamabad have frayed in recent months after Trump's angry tweet on Jan. 1 about Pakistan's "lies and deceit" over its alleged support for the Afghan Taliban and their allies. Last month, the United States suspended about $2 billion assistance to Islamabad.

Ehang's CEO, Hu Huazhi, says these passenger drones will first focus on carrying wealthy customers to establish a customer base (making it much like Elon Musk's strategy for Tesla). Then, ideally, economies of scale would democratize passenger drones, so everyone else can take to the sky. That, at least, is the futuristic vision. Peter Warren Singer is a strategist and senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He has been named by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues.

Watch a swarm of drones form the Olympic rings in mid-air at the Winter Olympics 2018 opening ceremony in Pyeongchang. Watch the 2018 Winter Olympics live on BBC TV, Red Button, Connected TVs, BBC Sport website and mobile app.