Los guardias revolucionarios de Irán envian mensajes con juegos de guerra, informa Daily Star

20 Febrero 2007

Iran's Revolutionary Guards send message with war games

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

 Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched three days of war games on Monday with a series of missile tests aimed at improving the country's defensive capabilities. The "Power Maneuver" exercises, involving 3,000 units of the elite force in 16 of Iran's 30 provinces, come at a time of mounting tension with the United States over Iran's nuclear program and allegations that it is arming militias in Iraq.

State television said the exercise is the biggest since March 2006. The broadcast said 20 brigades, or an estimated 60,000 troops, are participating in the maneuvers.

"All weapons possessed by the Guards' ground force … including new weapons, will be tested during the war games," General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the Guards' ground force, was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying Monday.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, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It oversees vital interests such as oil and natural gas installations and the nation's missile arsenal.

"With the firing of short-, medium- and long-range missiles by the Revolutionary Guards, Power Maneuver has started," the state news agency IRNA reported.

It is the latest show of force by Iran's elite military in the face of Washington's increasingly tough rhetoric, although US officials have been at pains to deny speculation of a planned military strike.

Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh, commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, told reporters at the US Navy base in Manama, Bahrain that the US was keeping a close eye on the military exercises in Iran.

IRNA said a total of 750 missiles and canon munitions would be fired during the exercises, being staged less than two weeks after similar maneuvers by the Guards' air force and naval units in the Gulf.

Exercise spokesman General Nilforoushan told state television the war games were aimed at "upgrading the capabilities and readiness of defense of the military forces as well as the deployment of munitions and forces in the early hours of a war."
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"We will also carry out offensive exercises with anti-helicopter and anti-aircraft weapons," said the spokesman, whose first name was not given.

"Once, having military weapons with a range of up to 50 kilometers was our ideal. But the Guards now have access to rockets and missiles of a range of more than 200 kilometers," said Nilforoushan.

He told the Fars news agency later that the armed forces had successfully tested a laser-guided anti-tank missile that can be launched by a Russian-designed T-72 tank.

Brigadier General Abbas Khani, the commander of an artillery and missile unit, said Fajr 3 and 5 and Zelzal missiles would be test-fired.

Zelzal (Quake) has a range of 100-400 kilometers. The Fajr 5 (Dawn) can hit a target about 70 kilometers away, while the Fajr 3 has a slightly shorter range.

The Guards earlier this month staged naval and air maneuvers during which they said they successfully test-fired a land-to-sea cruise missile capable of hitting warships in the Gulf and as far as the northern Indian Ocean.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran, which insists its atomic program is peaceful in nature.

Although Washington has said it wants the long-running standoff resolved through diplomacy, it has never ruled out military action to thwart Iran's atomic drive.

Iran is facing a deadline this week set by the UN Security Council to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can make nuclear fuel or the core of an atom bomb.

US President George W. Bush has ordered a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf and US forces have stepped up raids in Iraq on networks supplying Iranian arms to Iraqi militias.

US officials said this month that Iranian forces were supplying Shiite militias with sophisticated bombs and training, claims some analysts said appeared timed to step up pressure on Iran as a confrontation over its nuclear program is reaching a critical stage. - Agencies
 
 
 

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