Iran test fires new long- and mid-range missiles

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully test fired new long- and mid-range missiles in response to threats from the United States and Israel, Iran's satellite channel Press TV reported Wednesday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards fire missile of Shahab 3 during a war game in a desert near the holy city of Qom, southeast of Tehran, Nov. 2, 2006. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully test fired new long- and mid-range missiles in response to threats from the United States and Israel, Iran's satellite channel Press TV reported Wednesday.

In military exercises dubbed Payambar-e Azam 3 (Great Prophet 3), the IRGC test fired a Shahab 3 missile, which can hit any target within a range of 2,000 km, Press TV said.

The Shahab 3 ballistic missile was equipped with a one-ton conventional warhead, it added.

Nine highly advanced missiles with improved accuracy were simultaneously tested, including the Zelzal and Fateh missiles with ranges of 400 km and 170 km respectively.

The Payambar-e Azam 3 war games were conducted by missile units of the IRGC's naval and air forces, Press TV reported.

IRGC Naval Commander Morteza Saffari said various missile, rocket and torpedo launchers as well as military vessels and land-to-sea missiles were tested during the exercises.

"The IRGC Navy is carrying out this maneuver to show it is fully prepared to counter any possible enemy aggression or adventurism," Saffari said.

"The maneuver also sends out a reassuring message to regional countries that together we can secure the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz without the presence of foreign forces," he added.

IRGC Air Force Commander Hossein Salami told Press TV that the aim of the war games were to demonstrate "just how strong-willed the Islamic Republic is in defending its sovereignty against any challenges by those enemies that have used harsh and threatening words against Iran in recent weeks."

On Tuesday, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would strike Israeli city of Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the Gulf as a first response to any attack against the Islamic republic.

"The Zionist regime (Israel) is pressuring White House officials to prepare a military attack against Iran, " Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative in the Revolutionary Guards navy division, as saying.

The war games came after IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said in late June that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz if attacked.

The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran has denied the U.S. charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

The Bush administration said it focused on diplomacy to try to resolve Iran's nuclear issue, but has insisted it will take "no option off the table."

Some observers believe that it is still possible that the United States and Israel would attack Iranian targets for Tehran's suspicious nuclear programs.