Iran's Army to Hold Tactical Drills

MOSCOW, April 20 (RIA Novosti) - Iran’s Ground Forces will conduct a military exercise in the central Iran’s province of Esfahan in the near future, GF commander Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan said on Saturday.

In the course of the exercise, codenamed Bait-ul-Muqaddas 25, the army will conduct a series of tactical training operations and test modern military equipment, Pourdastan said, according to Press TV.

It will be the army’s second drill in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (started on March 20, 2013).

On Tuesday Iran successfully test-fired a medium range shore-to-sea ballistic missile in the Persian Gulf, the Islamic republic’s deputy defense minister Majid Bokaei said. He provided no details of the flight range, the missile specifications or the time of the test.

Last Saturday, Iran successfully test-fired three new surface-to-surface domestically produced missiles, the Fars news agency reported.

Iran test-fired the Naze'at 10 and Fajr 5 during a military exercise in mid-March. The Fajr-5 is a long-range artillery rocket with a maximum range of 75 kilometers (47 miles), while Naze'at-10 is a medium-range ballistic missile capable of hitting targets within a radius of 100-300 kilometers (62-186 miles).

Iranian officials and commanders have repeatedly stressed that all tests and training of the Iranian armed forces are only for deterrent and self-defense purposes.