Iran shows off rapid deployment forces in military war games
Iran staged war games on
Friday involving newly developed rapid redeployment units focused on fighting
enemy aggressors and armed militants, state media reported.
Around 12,000 elite troops, armored vehicles, fighter jets and drones were
taking part in the two-day exercises, staged in the central province of
Isfahan, state television said.
Deployed by transport planes and 60 helicopters, commandos hunted mock armed
militants, while an armored battalion blocked "enemy" forces trying
to retreat, state media said.
"In these war-games we will showcase two important developments: a
special-forces rapid deployment battalion and a highly mobile offensive armored
battalion," General Kioumars Heydari, head of the regular army's ground forces,
told state television.
Heydari said the war games would delight Iran's friends and show any aggressors
that they would face a "rapid and crushing blow" by the Iranian army,
the state news agency IRNA reported.
Relations between Iran and the United States, always frosty, have deteriorated
further following President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of an
international accord curbing Tehran's nuclear program and to reimpose economic
sanctions on Iran.
Tensions have also risen between Iran and arch-enemy Israel as well as its Gulf
neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia, while last September ISIS e claimed
responsibility for an attack on a military parade in which 25 people were
killed.
Iran holds military exercises several times a year to demonstrate its readiness
to respond to any foreign aggression.
Western defense analysts say Iran often exaggerates its military
strength.