TEHRAN – In less than 48 hours troops and equipment were transferred to the drill field in northwest Iran, the commander of the Army's northwestern regional base has said, IRNA reported on Friday.

The Army started a drill, codenamed Fatehan Kheybar, in northwestern Iran on Friday.

"According to the orders we receive from the command hierarchy, we will conduct exercises in different places, and for the Fatehan Kheybar exercise, equipment and forces were transferred to the area in less than 48 hours," Commander Ali Hajiloo explained.

"The drill was carried out using part of the power of the major units in the northwest of the country,” he added. 

Brigadier-General Hajiloo said units based in the provinces of Qazvin, Markazi and Tehran as well as Ground Force UAV unit and Army Aviation Force were deployed in the maneuver area. 

Hajiloo added since exercises are a complementary stage for training and the Army is updating its structure, equipment and knowledge, it is “necessary to practice these trainings in the field."

On the sidelines of a military drill in northwest Iran on Friday morning, commander of the Army Ground Force Kioumars Heydari said that Iran will test four new weapons in the drill.

There was no word how long the drill will last.

Heydari also said that Iran will not tolerate presence of foreigners in the northwest region of the country. 

“The overt and covert presence of the Zionist regime's proxies and the possibility of a significant number of Daesh terrorists in regional countries add to the importance of this exercise,” General Haydari said.

Daesh militants were brought into the region at the height of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, he said.

“Since we are not sure whether they have departed the area, the drill will convey a message to them. They and the Zionists must know they have no place in the region, and that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are fairly sensitive to them and will deal with them wherever they see them,” the senior commander stressed, according to Press TV.

He went on to say that various types of home-grown military equipment manufactured by the Islamic Republic of Iran Army and its Ground Forces will be used during the exercise.