{"id":225425,"date":"2021-01-16T07:13:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T07:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=225425"},"modified":"2021-01-18T08:26:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T08:26:50","slug":"iran-carries-out-great-prophet-15-ballistic-missile-drill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=225425","title":{"rendered":"Iran carries out &#8216;Great Prophet 15&#8217; ballistic missile drill"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Featuring kamikaze drones that closely resemble those used in 2019 attacks on Saudi Arabia<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Weaponry used in the drill resembled that used in a 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia<\/li>\n<li>Iran denied involvement in the attack but the US, Saudi Arabia and UN experts believed the drones were Iranian-made<\/li>\n<li>Friday&#8217;s drill reportedly took place in the Great Salt Desert in central Iran<\/li>\n<li>I<strong>t comes at a time of heightened tension between Iran and the United States<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">AP, AFP and Charlotte Mitchell \u2013 Mail Online Jan 15, 2021<\/h1>\n<p>Iran&#8217;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.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/iran\/index.html\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;Great Phrophet 15&#8217; exercises also saw the IRGC launch around a dozen ballistic missiles from the back of mobile launchers positioned in the desert.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s largest oil processing refinery and a nearby oil field.<\/p>\n<p>However, Saudi Arabia and the US say Iran is directly responsible, pointing to pieces of exploded drone wreckage as their primary evidence.<\/p>\n<p>And on Friday, the IRGC released video of similar-looking drones slamming into targets and exploding as part of their latest drill.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_225426\" style=\"width: 644px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Zolfaghar-Zelzal-and-Dezful-ballistic-missiles-launched.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225426\" class=\"size-full wp-image-225426\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Zolfaghar-Zelzal-and-Dezful-ballistic-missiles-launched.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"634\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Zolfaghar-Zelzal-and-Dezful-ballistic-missiles-launched.jpg 634w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Zolfaghar-Zelzal-and-Dezful-ballistic-missiles-launched-480x274.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 634px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-225426\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The drill involved a drone attack on a missile defence system followed by a &#8216;barrage of Zolfaghar, Zelzal and Dezful-class ballistic missiles,&#8217; the Guards&#8217; Sepah news site said. Unlike earlier drills however, many of these missiles have been proven in battle.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Saudi Arabia showed damaged drones to journalists after the attacks, while UN experts included images of the drone in a report.<\/p>\n<p>Experts refer to such bomb-carrying drones as &#8216;loitering munitions.&#8217; 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.<\/p>\n<p>Footage from Friday&#8217;s drills showed Guards commander Hossein Salami and the force&#8217;s aerospace chief Amirali Hajizadeh present at the drill.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;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,&#8217; Salami was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n<p>Hajizadeh said the operation demonstrated the Guards&#8217; &#8216;new power&#8217; and capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s final days as president.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dYUtM4cg7dU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9151483\/Iran-launches-ballistic-missile-drill-drones-resemble-used-Saudi-Arabia-attacks.html\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran has put on another display of missile firepower similar to those it once displayed under Ahmadinejad. Only now its missiles are more sophisticated, more accurate and proven in battle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":225427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225425"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225467,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225425\/revisions\/225467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/225427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}