Late Saturday, a video was released showing clips of violent crashes and explosions, but this particular video had content in it that all previously released ISIS videos did not - surveillance footage that appeared to be shot from a military-type drone. The 13 plus-minute video depicts aerial views of Syrian Army Military Bases near Raqqa province in northern Syria.

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In a developing story, the video looks like proof that ISIS is now using highly sophisticated surveillance technology to plan its military operations and attacks against the Syrian Army. Jihadist terrorist groups are now using drones - equipment that was once the monopoly of states.

Videos have recently emerged on YouTube over the weekend allegedly released by the terrorist group ISIS. Like most IS extremist videos, numerous scenes of Jihadist propaganda flash across the screen; IS militants reading verses from the Quran while examining a map of northern Syria.

This propagandist material is among the norm of what you might expect of an extremist militia. However, one video in particular caught the attention of IS material analysts.

The ISIS militant group has been deploying suicide truck bombers against the resistance, most of which was included in the footage in the videotape that was released late Saturday. The caption over most of the footage in this videotape, including that of the Syrian military base, reads: "Surveillance from the drone of the Islamic State Army". It is believed that the drone was shot down and obtained by IS militants during a surveillance operation fashioned by Israeli Army operatives.

Armed military drones have been employed in combat by only three countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel. However, according to a recent evaluation by the New America Foundation, approximately 80 different countries have some type of drone capability, whether armed or unarmed. Russia and China are among those nations who possess armed drones but have not deployed them for combat purposes.

The fact that the terrorist militant organizations have acquired and utilized these high-tech drones during combat operations indicates how rapidly this technology is being proliferated. This is why it is imperative to set some type of international agreement that regulates the use of armed drones by both states and non-state actors or affiliates.

One could easily imagine the creation of international regulations that specifies a matter of international law when the use of particular technologies can be sanctioned outside of conventional warfare to survey or kill dangerous terrorists.

Such regulations would help to prevent the sale or transfer of sophisticated drone technologies to terrorist militias such as ISIS. 

TagsISIS, Syrian Army, drones, ISIS Surveillance footage