Iran Armed Forces To Launch Air Defense Drill Amid Rising Tensions

The Iranian armed forces are set to launch an air defense drill on Thursday in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

IRNA, the Iranian state news agency, reported that the drill will be conducted over an area of 600 kilometers.

The Iranian army and the IRGC’s naval and air forces will participate, IRNA added.

Qader Rahimzadeh, an Iranian air defense commander, said that several state-of-the-art systems will be on display for the first time in this drill.

Dozens of manned and unmanned aircrafts will use “the tactics of the day” to attack the critical sites identified in this drill, Rahimzadeh claimed.

Fars news agency, affiliated with the IRGC, reported that this is the fifth air defense drill in which the IRGC and the Iranian army jointly take part.

The drill comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the region. Over recent days, the IRGC attacked several positions in Iraq’ Kurdistan region, Syria and Pakistan in what it called an attempt to target terrorists and Israeli agents. Pakistan retaliated by attacking several locations in southeastern Iran early Thursday.

Also, following the Israel-Hamas conflict, Iran-backed Houthis have time and again targeted trade vessels in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

On January 10, the UN Security Council passed a resolution, calling on Yemen’s Houthis to stop attacks on shipping immediately.

Two days after the resolution was approved, the US and UK targeted dozens of Houthis’ sites in Yemen. Though the raids have degraded Houthis’ military capabilities, they have failed to prevent the militant group from its destabilizing actions.

The Islamic Republic has avoided any direct involvement in the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, the regime has used its proxy groups in the region such as Houthis and Hezbollah to attack Israeli and American targets.