Iran’s navy celebrated Thursday as it successfully test-fired a new cruise missile just weeks after 19 of its sailors were killed and 15 others seriously injured in a friendly fire incident.
The armed forces’ website published pictures of the drill (above) in the Gulf of Oman showing missiles being fired from a warship and the back of a truck, and a vessel exploding out at sea.
A statement carried by state media said both short- and long-range missiles were test-fired in the exercise, codenamed Ramadan Martyrs, in a “naval combat war game in the Sea of Oman and the northern parts of the Indian Ocean.”
They “destroyed the designated targets 280 kilometres (174 miles) away, and their range can be increased even further,” said the statement.
The missiles were designed and produced by the defence ministry and the navy, it said, without giving any further details.
A video released by state television on its website said some of the missiles were based on “older platforms that have been updated.”
They were “missiles with deadly precision and power for Iran’s enemies,” said an IRIB reporter at a beach where they were fired from a truck.
Iran’s navy regularly holds exercises in the region, which is close to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. The U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet, which monitors the region, did not immediately respond.
In January, the Iran military accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane near the capital, Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, as Breitbart news reported.
AFP contributed to this story