Report: Iran builds surface-to-surface missile

Associated Press

A news agency in Iran is reporting that the Islamic Republic has built a new surface-to-surface cruise missile capable of being launched from an airplane.

The report Sunday by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the airspace department of the elite Revolutionary Guard, as saying that the missile has a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles).

Hajizadeh said the missile can be launched from land-based pads, naval vessels, aircraft, helicopters and drones.

From time to time Iran announces building new military devices, which cannot be independently verified. Iran began a self-sufficient military program in 1992, under which the country produces weapons from mortars to submarines.

BBC 'raid archives'

In other Iranian-related news, Iranian state television has accused the BBC of trying to steal "artistic, historic and cultural documents" from government archives in the Islamic Republic.

The BBC had no immediate comment on the claim, coming in a report aired Sunday, though Iran has a history of accusing the British broadcaster as operating as a cover for spies and dissidents.

The state television report said Iranian intelligence officials disrupted the alleged plot by "local dependents" of the BBC targeting "formal archives." It did not elaborate.

The BBC's Farsi-language service is not authorized to operate in Iran, and working for the network is against the law. The BBC says Tehran also blocks its broadcasts into the country.

In 2012, Iran arrested two filmmakers over alleged links to BBC. They were released later.