Tehran, September 28: Iran on Monday wound up two days of “successful” missile tests as part of war games, with all the targets hit, the elite Revolutionary Guards said.
“The last stage of the ‘Great Prophet’ ballistic missile manoeuvres were carried out successfully this morning. Thus the manoeuvres have ended, with all the targets hit,” the Guards said on its Sepahnews website.
Iran’s Guards on Monday test-fired its two-stage long-range Sejil missile, the Fars news agency and English-language Press TV channel reported.
“For the first time the Guards tested the Sejil, a two-stage missile powered by solid fuel, in a missile manoeuvre,” Fars said.
The Guards’ air force commander Hossein Salami was quoted by Press TV as saying that the force test-fired the Sejil along with the other long-range Shahab-3 missile.
On Sunday, the Guards launched the missile manoeuvres marking “Sacred Defence” week which commemorates the start of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
The exercise comes at a time of war threats from Israel, with possible US backing.
Guards air force commander Hossein Salami told reporters on Sunday that the force would test-fire a Shahab-3 long-range missile on Monday.
Iran says the missile has a range of 1,300-2,000 kilometres (800-1,240 miles).
On Sunday, the Guards fired several short- and medium-range missiles, some with multiple warheads, state media reported.
The medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2, with a range of between 300 kilometres and 700 kilometres, were successfully launched, Salami said.
“The missiles shot have precisely hit the targets,” he said.
Earlier, the Guards test-fired three types of short-range missile — the Tondar-69, Fateh-110 and Zelzal.
All three weapons, powered by solid fuel, have a range of between 100 and 400 kilometres. State-owned Press TV broadcast footage of sand-coloured missiles being fired in desert terrain.
On Monday, Salami issued a warning to those who threaten to wage war against Iran.
“Our response will be strong and destructive to those who threaten the existence, independence, freedom and values of our regime. They will regret it,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
He said the missile exercise was aimed at practising for “long wars, moving the missile installations from one point to another as well as simultaneous and non-simultaneous shots at convergent and divergent targets.”
On Sunday, Salami dismissed Israel as a potential threat, saying “that regime is not in a position that we need to comment about threats from it.”
The White House said the intelligence community now believed Iran was developing shorter-range missiles “more rapidly than previously projected,” while progressing more slowly than expected with intercontinental missiles.
—Agencies