Iran fires medium-range missiles in war game

Tehran, Jun 28: Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards fired 14 missiles in an exercise today (Jun 28), one of them a medium-range weapon capable of striking Israel or US targets in the Gulf, state media said.

The Guards' aerospace commander, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, insisted Iran's missile programme posed no threat to European nations but was merely intended to provide defence against Israel and US forces in the Gulf.

"Today, on the second day of the exercise, we fired Zelzals (Quake), Shahabs (Meteors) 1 and 2, and the Ghadr (Power)," a medium-range missile which is a modified version of the Shahab-3, Hajizadeh told state television.

He said the missiles were not a threat to European nations.

"Iran's missiles have a maximum range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) and are designed to reach US targets in the region and the Zionist regime," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

"The Zionist regime is 1,200 kilometres away from Iran and we are able to target this regime with our 2,000 kilometre range missiles from Semnan and Damghan (in central Iran)," he said.

"We have the technology to build missiles with a longer range but we do not need them and we are not seeking to build such missiles." Iran has said that its latest exercise is not aimed at any country but carries "a message of peace and friendship."

IRNA said the Guards fired nine Zelzals, two Shahab-1s, two Shahab-2s and a single medium-range Ghadr on the second day of their Great Prophet-6 exercise.

AFP