Iran in first firing of longer-range missiles on exercise

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has fired its longer-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile on exercise for the first time as it began 10 days of war games amid a mounting standoff with the West over its nuclear programme.

The hardline Revolutionary Guards fired the missiles, which have a range of up to 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) -- sufficient to threaten US bases in the Gulf -- during the first phase of the manoeuvres in the central desert, state television reported Thursday.

"Shahab missiles, carrying cluster warheads, with a range of 2,000 kilometres, were fired from the desert near (Iran's clerical capital) Qom," it said.

"Dozens of Shahab-2 and -3, Zolfaghar-73, Scud B, Fath-110 and Zelzal have been launched in the presence of (Guards chief) General Yahya Rahim Safavi, and other high-ranking commanders," the television said.

"The cluster head of the Shahab-2 has the capability to disperse 1,400 bomblets with great destructive power."

It was the first time that Iran had fired the longer-range Shahab-3 on exercise and commanders said they would also be employing other "new equipment" during the war games.

Dubbed Great Prophet 2, the air, land and sea manoeuvres are to extend across 14 provinces "with the focus on the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman," Safavi said Wednesday.

"The first and main goal of this exercise is to demonstrate power and national determination to defend the country against any possible threat," he said.

"Heliport operations will be carried out in the Hormozgan region (on the Strait of Hormuz) and some of the Persian Gulf islands."

The strategic Strait of Hormuz is the obligatory passage for tankers exiting the Gulf that carry much of the world's oil supply.

The Iranian manoeuvres come hot on the heels of naval exercises launched in the Gulf on Monday by a US-led flotilla including warships from Australia, Bahrain, France, Italy and Britain.

"That is a propaganda and political manoeuvre without military value," Safavi said then.

"If forces from out of the region want to jeopardize Iran's security and interests, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (volunteer militia) will use all their capabilities to strike their enemies and their interests," he warned.

But the Guards commander insisted Iran's exercises were no threat to its neighbours.

"This manoeuvre is no threat for the region or neighbouring countries," he said, adding: "Our neighbours are our friends and we consider our neighbours' enemies our enemies."

The aim of the exercises was the "defence of sensitive centres, strategic bottlenecks and confrontation of possible troubles," he said.

It is Iran's third round of war games this year. In August, the armed forces held country-wide manoeuvres dubbed Zolfaghar Blow. Iran also staged Great Prophet 1 exercises in April.

The new war games come amid a mounting standoff between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme after the European Union pronounced at an end talks on a negotiated solution to Western concerns that Tehran is seeking the bomb.