Featuring kamikaze drones that closely resemble those used in 2019 attacks on Saudi Arabia
- Weaponry used in the drill resembled that used in a 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia
- Iran denied involvement in the attack but the US, Saudi Arabia and UN experts believed the drones were Iranian-made
- Friday’s drill reportedly took place in the Great Salt Desert in central Iran
- It comes at a time of heightened tension between Iran and the United States
AP, AFP and Charlotte Mitchell – Mail Online Jan 15, 2021
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched a missile and drone drill on Friday featuring wedge-shaped suicide drones that strongly resemble the craft used to attack a Saudi oil facility in 2019.
The ‘Great Phrophet 15’ exercises also saw the IRGC launch around a dozen ballistic missiles from the back of mobile launchers positioned in the desert.
Iran has long-denied carrying out the Abqaiq-Khurais attack which saw global oil supply lines temporarily cut after drones and cruise missiles slammed into Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing refinery and a nearby oil field.
However, Saudi Arabia and the US say Iran is directly responsible, pointing to pieces of exploded drone wreckage as their primary evidence.
And on Friday, the IRGC released video of similar-looking drones slamming into targets and exploding as part of their latest drill.
The drill involved a drone attack on a missile defence system followed by a ‘barrage of Zolfaghar, Zelzal and Dezful-class ballistic missiles,’ the Guards’ Sepah news site said. Unlike earlier drills however, many of these missiles have been proven in battle.
Saudi Arabia showed damaged drones to journalists after the attacks, while UN experts included images of the drone in a report.
Experts refer to such bomb-carrying drones as ‘loitering munitions.’ The drone flies to a destination, likely programmed before its flight, and either explodes in the air over the target or on impact against it.
Footage from Friday’s drills showed Guards commander Hossein Salami and the force’s aerospace chief Amirali Hajizadeh present at the drill.
‘The message of this drill was our power and determined will to defend our sovereignty, our sacred system and our values against the enemies of Islam and Iran,’ Salami was quoted as saying.
Hajizadeh said the operation demonstrated the Guards’ ‘new power’ and capabilities.
The drill follows an Iranian navy exercise held Wednesday and Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, and an army drone drill on January 5 and 6.
Tehran also recently seized a South Korean oil tanker and begun enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels, as the US sent B-52 bombers, the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine into the region as a deterrent in Trump’s final days as president.
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One clear advantage to Iran is that as the victim of US-Israeli aggression the Iranian people will be less sensitive to casualty numbers, whereas US and Israeli politicians are very sensitive to casualty numbers, more so in a war most of their people do not support. This means Iran can leave the conduct of the war to its generals, admirals and spies, with political sensitivities second to that. The US and Israel, however, will surely have politicians conduct the war to political sensitivities, leaving military strategy a distant second.
Using political strategies sensitive to your own domestic voters it must be near-impossible to win a distant war against an enemy close to home who is free to employ the best military strategies.
If America attacks, the Prophet will go ballistic?
M M if you are right then nuclear war is inevitable because, in their eyes, Iran cannot be allowed to exist.
Michael McNulty delivers a wise post this time and makes a valid point. Iran is smart to concentrate on missiles as its desired front defense method. Iran knows it’s hopeless to try and match Israel and its client state U.S. in plane for plane and ship to ship, because Israel simply gets any number of offensive weapons it desires from its client state. Also having a large army and a young population to draw from is another benefit. I hope there is no war as Iran has been under virtual attack for some fifteen years via Israel and the U.S.
Unlike other countries that promote their military personnel regularly and give medals like candies, advancing through military ranks in Iran is very tough, so much so that today Iran only has about ~11 brigadier generals (one is Admiral); after revolution Iran has never had a living 3 or 4 star generals up to this date, this is while puny artificial states such as UAE, Bahrain… or bigger artificial states such as Saudi Arabia have many 3 or 4 star generals!! : )
Now Martyr General Qassem Suleimani was a 2 star general (major general) when alive… however since he was actually in wartime and managing various other forces who were coordinating with him including Russian generals, it is easy to consider him as an actual Field Martial. After all his success, strategic genius, courage and powerful yet humble character is acknowledged even by his enemies.
A Field Martial is a four-star-general who is actively managing forces in wartime… Qasem Suleimani was in the field all the time and in the front lines! He was managing the region against US CENTCOM first under the command of a four star general Joseph Votel who was later dismissed for his failure; as Trump said US spent 7 trillion just in this region and later General Mattis and McKenzie all higher rank generaks than Qasem Suleimani who is the reason Zionist plans failed in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine. Despite his constant involvement in very serious ground scenarios including one critical mission saving a Russian Pilot… none of these encounters killed him, there are videos of him encouraging his forces to move with him towards the enemy positions! And let us be clear “on the ground” he managed the entire region and multiple conflicts, Russian air force coordinated with him, in fact it was Qasem Suleimani that went to Russia and convinced Putin and Russian generals that they should enter Syria with their air force. Note that Russia entered conflict in Syria after 3 years since the beginning, so it was Iran and its allies saving Assad and pushing ISIS for 3 years.
So what am I getting at?! Iran has had 3 extremely important “key” generals who were about to be promoted but were cowardly assassinated, without any doubt enemy dealt heavy blows to Iran and caused major problems… had they not been assassinated perhaps history would be different! In chronological order:
1- General Qarani (link removed to avoid comment being marked as spam)
He was the only man who could organize Shah’s army after the revolution. His assassination caused major problems and hindered restoration of the army against Saddam. He also was one of the few individuals who knew the SAVAK codes that could reveal who was who in the letters, some of the SAVAK (Shah’s Israeli trained brutal secret service) and other spies and people of importance including crypto Jews, Bahais, etc… are probably still in some position in Iran as spies and fifth column!
2- General Sayad Shirazi (link removed to avoid comment being marked as spam)
Known for his swift defeat of MEK forces (were allied with Saddam) in operation Mersad, he had a great relationship with both Artesh (Iran’s Regular army) and IRGC… most of his life he was in the field too, his assassination again happened before he was going to be promoted. Pioneer in asymmetric response. For five years he had developed a complete understanding, listing and relationship with all military branches and could have created a networked security system between all branches of the military and improved national security.
3- General Qasem Suleimani. The legend. He created a coalition of forces (something similar to NATO), and defeated Zionist and Globalist plans for the region. Currently the largest and the most battle hardened and ready ground force in the world are the forces of the resistance block led by Iran.
The question now then is: Why Qasem Suleimani was assassinated? One of the main reasons is the bastard hypocrites and fifth column within Iran sending double signals and raising issues that enemy picks up. The liberal camp in Iran known as reformists have lost all popularity in Iran and will most likely lose the next election in year 1400 (Iranian calendar which is the next century for Iran too!)… They raised their fears that Qasem Suleimani is going to be promoted and would be running for presidency! Qasem Suleimani being very popular all around the world and in Iran too becoming president would be a serious problem for Zionists. So these idiots and traitors kept talking about this possibility… though Qasem Suleimani himself said that “he was a soldier and he would not become a president.” Regardless what Iran needs is a new revolutionary and military president preferably an IRGC general!
What is clear is that Iran’s enemies don’t like to see higher ranking Iranian generals! Just as they like to assassinate Iran’s key scientists, this is the same. After all Iran’s two star generals are proven to be much more than four star field Martials of its enemy.
Western governments are fully aware Iran cannot enrich uranium to weapon grade status simply because it doesn’t need them and hasn’t got the facilities to make it. So it’s a lie to say that it does.
It does however have a good store of hard water that is coverted by western governments which can be used for trade on property rights.
Go Iran and the Hez.