TEHRAN – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully concluded its large-scale drills in Iran’s southern waters, saying the drills conveyed the message of Iranian forces’ readiness to counter threats.

“The arrogant [powers] and those who had greed toward our interests received the message of readiness, vigilance and resistance of the Iranian nation and armed forces through the fields of this memorable event,” the IRGC said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement came at the end of the large-scale military war game, codenamed Payambar-e A’zam (The Great Prophet) 14.

“We are the children of Imam Khamenei and soldiers of jihad and martyrdom, and we’re determined to devotedly defend the achievements of the Islamic Revolution, the establishment and the dear people of Iran,” the statement read, according to Mehr.

It added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has never started any war and will not do so, but it will act decisively when defending the country’s independence, territorial integrity, security and national interests.

The IRGC said the drills ended successfully with implementation of all determined sequences and combined operational drills across the land, sea, air, and space.

It also enumerated some of the “elaborate operational drills” carried out during the event, such as unprecedented firing of ballistic missiles from underground launch facilities, destruction of enemy radar facilities, and successful firing of coast-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles that led to destruction of enemy warships.

On Tuesday, which saw the first day of the war game, the IRGC staged “all-out and multi-layer” strikes against the life-size replica of a Nimitz-class U.S. aircraft carrier, which the U.S. navy usually sails into the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz.

The IRGC’s servicemen began the episode by destroying the mock carrier’s accompaniment with coast-to-sea fire.

The national television aired footage showing the damage caused to the mock aircraft carrier following the operational juncture.

On Wednesday, the IRGC Aerospace Force successfully launched a series of ballistic missiles from well-camouflaged underground missile systems during the military exercise.

It was for the first time that the IRGC launched missiles from under the ground.  

The IRGC’s Sukhoi-22 fighter jets also destroyed targets on the Farur Island with winged bombs.

The war game was announced to be monitored for the first time by the Noor-1 Satellite.

The IRGC successfully put Noor into orbit on April 22. The Iranian satellite was launched with the three-stage satellite carrier Qassed (messenger) from a launch pad in Dasht-e Kavir, a large desert in central Iran.

MH/PA