SPY ON HARRIS

Israeli drone keeps tabs on his visit to our troops at Camp Shamrock | Meeting with Lebanese leaders seeking justice for slain Pte Rooney

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE

TANAISTE Simon Harris shrugged off an Israeli drone spying on him as he visited hundreds of Irish soldiers in southern Lebanon.

Mr Harris, who is Minister for Defence as well as Foreign Affairs, said he would not be intimidated by the presence of the device over Ireland's Camp Shamrock yesterday.

The Hermes spy drone, with hightech surveillance cameras, loitered over the camp, also known as UNP245, for more than an hour during Mr Harris' visit to the site.

The drone was flying at several thousand feet and its engine could be clearly heard all over the sprawling camp around eight kilometres from the Blue Line, the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon.

The Tanaiste was in Lebanon to meet to meet with members of the 339-strong Irish 125 Infantry Battalion, which has been in southern Lebanon for the last five months as part of a UNIFIL peace force.

Their time saw Israel blast the area in an effort to root out Islamic militia Hezbollah, which previously fired thousands of missiles at the Jewish state.

BUZZED