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Iran bolsters retaliation warning with missile tests
11 July 2008
Iran has test fired a long-range Shahab-3 missile following warnings from Tehran that it would retaliate against any strike against its nuclear facilities by Israel or the United States.
The Shahab-3 was launched during three days of naval war games in the Persian Gulf to test the combat readiness of the country's armed forces, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on 9 July. While the missile is known to have a range of up to 1,500 km there was no confirmation of the length of the test or of reported claims from Iran that an updated version of the missile had a range of 2,000 km.
Iran's war games coincided with a planned US military exercise alongside British and Bahraini warships in the Gulf. They also followed one month of Israeli air manoeuvres over the Mediterranean that military analysts and published reports suggest were a 'dress rehearsal' for a possible strike against Iranian nuclear targets.