•Missile launches ‘irresponsible’, says US
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it launched ballistic missiles from “the depths of the Earth” on Wednesday during the last day of military exercises near sensitive Gulf waters.
A video posted online by a news agency linked to Iran’s state TV showed clouds of dust before the missiles streaked into the sky.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement it was “the first time in the world” that such an exercise had been carried out.
It hailed “the successful launch of ballistic missiles from the depths of the Earth in a completely camouflaged way” as an “important achievement that could pose serious challenges to enemy intelligence organisations”.
The IRGC said it also released bombs from Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to target predetermined positions on Bani Farur Island in Iran’s territorial waters.
“These launches were carried out without the platform and usual equipment,” IRGC aerospace chief Brigadier-General Amirali Hajizadeh said on state television.
“The buried missiles suddenly tear through the ground and hit their targets with precision,” he said, adding again this happened “for the first time in the world”.
However, the US military said the manoeuvres caused two bases with American troops in the region to go on heightened alert and said Tehran’s missile launches were irresponsible.
The launches came a day after the Guard struck a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with volleys of missiles near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for one-fifth of world oil output.