Great Prophet 17 exercise simulated targeting Israeli Dimona facility
The fourth day of the Great Prophet 17 war games included mock strikes on sensitive Israeli sites, including the Dimona nuclear facility.
-
Medium-range cruise missiles fired in Grand Prophet 17 exercise
Iran launched around 16 ballistic missiles Friday at the end of the five-day military drills that constituted a warning to “Israel” and included a mock strike on Israel’s nuclear facility, according to top Iranian commanders.
“Through a simulation of the Dimona atomic facilities, the Revolutionary Guards successfully practiced attacking this critical center of the Zionist regime in its missile exercise,” the Iranian Tasnim news agency reported.
IRGC Commander-in-Chief, Major General Hossein Salami, stressed, on the sidelines of the ground stage of the Great Prophet 17 joint maneuvers, on its last day, that the IRGC ground force is a "reassuring guarantee of independence, territorial integrity, and national security for the country."
“We will cut off their hands if they make a wrong move. The distance between actual operations and military exercises is only a change in the angles of launching the missiles,” Salami said.
"Sixteen missiles aimed and annihilated the chosen target. In this exercise, part of the hundreds of Iranian missiles capable of destroying a country that dared to attack Iran were deployed," he added.
On his part, Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri said these exercises were designed to respond to threats made in recent days by the Zionist regime.
IRGC Naval Force Commander Brigadier General Alireza Tangsiri said that cruise missiles are resistant to electronic warfare, are capable of identifying targets in difficult conditions, have high precision, and can be armed with warheads within a short period of time. They also carry modern, special radars.
The drills come after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, amid "Israel's" opposition to efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Bennett has accused Iran of "nuclear blackmail" and claimed that the revenue it would gain from sanctions relief would be used to acquire weapons to harm Israelis.
Iran repeatedly stresses it only wants to develop a civil, peaceful nuclear program, but Western powers claim its stocks of enriched uranium could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.
