by ADAM RAWNSLEY

The conflict in Syria has already played host to Iranian, Israeli, American and Syrian drones. Now a new report shows that another player is entering Syria’s drone war.

On April 23, IHS Jane’s published a report with satellite imagery suggesting that Lebanese Hezbollah had built a small air base capable of hosting unmanned aerial vehicles.

The airfield is in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a stronghold for the terror group. The short size of the unpaved runway — just 670 meters long and 20 meters wide — led the publication to believe it’s intended as a UAV facility.

Jane’s used Iran Ababil-3 unarmed drones as a yardstick to show that two buildings built over two kilometers west of the runway could house the drones. It’s a good yardstick.

The Ababil-3 is one of Iran’s most exported UAVs. It’s also the model most often used by Syrian Pres. Bashar Al Assad’s regime. But a hangar that size could accommodate just about any Iranian drone.

Up until the war in Syria, Hezbollah used UAVs primarily in Israel. Sometimes it loaded the drones with explosives and crashed them into targets, making the UAV a crude cruise missile.

More often, Hezbollah buzzed the drones near Israeli air defenses and then used the footage in propaganda videos or during speeches.

But IHS Jane’s report shows that the group is expanding its use of drones to include more traditional support for ground forces along the Syrian border.

Iranian hardware has been at the center of Hezbollah’s drone operations since the organization first began using them against Israel. In November 2004 and April 2005, Hezbollah UAVs dubbed “Mersad-1” flew over the Israeli border and back.

Reports differ on whether the Mirsad was from the Ababil or Mohajer family of Iranian drones. But the Misrad UAV Hezbollah showed off after the incidents is closer to an early Ababil than a Mohajer.

The terror group initially claimed that it had received eight of the aircraft from Iran. But a classified State Department cable to the U.S. embassy in Beirut has more info.

According to the cable, Hezbollah had only one operational Misrad in 2005. That’s down from three. It lost one when the drone crashed during landing. The other was defective and never flew.

By the time of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli defense officials estimated that Hezbollah had around a dozen drones. The war offered the first up-close look at Hezbollah’s UAVs when Israeli fighter jets shot down two. They were similar to the Ababil-II generation of Iranian drones.

In 2012, Hezbollah lost another drone — dubbed “Ayoub” — to Israeli jets when it flew over Israel. In a later speech, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted the drone had come from Iran.