Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched large-scale war-games on Monday, state television reported. Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched large-scale war-games on Monday, state television reported.
The report said that the military manoeuvres by the IRGC’s Ground Forces are being held in 16 of the country’s 30 provinces.
Some 60,000 IRGC forces will take part in the drills code-named Eqtedar, or strength, it added.
Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Zahedi, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces, told reporters that the war-games were the largest since March 2006.
All of the IRGC Ground Forces weapons, including artillery, armoured vehicles, an assortment of firearms and anti-armour weapons, as well as new weapons possessed by the force will be used in the three-day-long war-games, General Zahedi said.
The IRGC was founded in the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 as an armed force loyal to Irans clerical rulers. Its commanders directly report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and their mission is to “protect and propagate the Islamic revolution”.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became President in August 2005, hundreds of senior officers of the IRGC have been appointed to government ministries and state institutions to prop up the countrys civil administration as the Islamic Republic continues to defy the international community over its suspected nuclear weapons program.
