The Iranian military held its annual drill on Friday near the strategic strait of Hormuz at the end of the Persian Gulf, state media reported.
The drill took place in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman, near the Hormuz strait, where around 30 percent of the crude oil traded by sea passes through.
Tehran opposes the presence of U.S. and Western navies in the area.
State media said commandos and airborne infantry would participate in the wargames, dubbed “Zolfaghar-1401,” along with drones, fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft, and submarines.
Iran’s military is to fire missiles and air defense systems as well, it added.
The report said commandos and airborne infantry would participate in the wargames, dubbed “Zolfaghar-1401,” along with drones, fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft, and submarines.
Iran’s military is to fire missiles and air defense systems as well, it added.
The drill involved “practicing information-gathering operations against attacking forces, as well as reconnaissance operations,” Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told the IRNA news agency.
Sayyari said foreign forces must leave the area “so that regional countries can establish stability and peace in their neighborhood,” the English-language state-run Press TV reported.
The exercises come as Iran has been shaken by protests ignited by the death of a woman in police custody in mid-September. The demonstrations have rapidly escalated into calls for an end to more than four decades of rule by the Islamic Republic regime. Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA) said Dec. 31 that 508 protesters, including 69 children, had been killed. The group added that 66 security forces had been killed.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
