The exercises – dubbed “Prophet Muhammad 14th” – took place near the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran:
Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Tuesday detonated a model of a US aircraft carrier with missiles during military exercises in sensitive Gulf waters, state television reported.
The exercises – dubbed “Prophet Muhammad 14th” – took place near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for one-fifth of the world‘s oil production.
They were staged at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old nemesis, the United States.
Footage from the war games broadcast on state television showed the air and naval guards preparing for an attack off the country’s southwest coast.
Speedboats flew over the water in formation before ground forces fired cannons and a missile was launched from a helicopter.
A mock-up of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier appeared with rows of dummy fighter jets on either side of its airstrip.
The television then cut rockets fired towards the sea from the backs of trucks, before showing damage to the hull of the model of the aircraft carrier.
Another missile fired from a helicopter left a trail of smoke before appearing to crash into the side of the fake warship.
Armed forces were then seen abseiling on the deck of the ship, before a dozen speedboats surrounded it.
“What was shown today in these exercises, at the level of the aerospace and naval forces, was quite offensive,” the commander of the guards, Major General Hossein Salami said on state television.
The War Games come just days after Tehran accused US fighter jets of harassing an Iranian commercial airliner in the skies over Syria.
At least four passengers aboard the Mahan Air plane were injured in Thursday’s incident, after the pilot took emergency measures to avoid the fighter jets.
Tensions have intensified between Iran and the United States since U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal in 2018.
Major enemies have been on the brink of war twice since June 2019, when guards shot down an American drone in the Gulf.
Their animosity escalated after Iran’s most prominent general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport in January.
One of the most recent clashes took place in mid-April, when the United States accused the Guards of using speedboats to harass their warships in the Gulf.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
