Region | Iran
Iran test-fires Russian missiles near Strait of Hormuz
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards test-fired its new Russian defence missile system yesterday near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, state radio reported.
- AP
- Published: 00:00 February 8, 2007
Tehran: Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards test-fired its new Russian defence missile system yesterday near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, state radio reported.
The two-day manoeuvres are Iran's second since the United Nations Security Council approved economic sanctions against it on December 23, which ban selling to Iran materials and technology that it could use in its nuclear and missile programmes.
As tensions rise over Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, the United States and Iran have pursued an escalating series of military moves, with Washington sending a second aircraft carrier battle group to the region and Iran responding with more frequent manoeuvres.
The Revolutionary Guards began the games yesterday in the Gulf and Oman Sea, which flank the strait, through which some 20 per cent of the world's oil transits daily.
The goal of the manoeuvres dubbed Saegheh and Badr, is to improve the "defence, stamina and operation" of participating units, state radio reported. The first word of the games' name means lightning, while the second refers to a decisive battle in the early days of Islam.
The Revolutionary Guards is an elite military corps with more than 200,000 members and its own naval and air forces. It is independent of the regular armed forces and controlled directly by the supreme leader. It oversees vital interests such as oil and natural gas installations and the nation's missile arsenal.
Iran announced in January that it had received the Tor M-1 Russian air defence missile system, though it did not say when the weapons had arrived. Moscow had said previously it would supply 29 of the systems to Iran under a $700 million (Dh2,570 million) contract signed in December 2005.
Iran in January launched three-day military manoeuvres, including short-range missile tests on its mainland.
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